Small for gestational age (SGA) children exhibiting catch-up (CU) growth have a greater risk of cardiometabolic diseases in later life compared with non-catch-up (NCU) SGA children. The aim of this study was to establish differences in metabolism and gene expression profiles between CU and NCU at age 4-9 years. CU children (n=22) had greater height, weight and body mass index standard deviation scores along with insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and fasting glucose levels but lower adiponectin values than NCU children (n=11; all P<0.05). Metabolic profiling demonstrated a fourfold decrease of urine myo-inositol in CU compared with NCU (P<0.05). There were 1558 genes differentially expressed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells between the groups (P<0.05). Integrated analysis of data identified myo-inositol related to gene clusters associated with an increase in insulin, growth factor and IGF-I signalling in CU children (P<0.05). Metabolic and transcriptomic profiles in CU SGA children showed changes that may relate to cardiometabolic risk.
BackgroundLater life metabolic dysfunction is a well-recognised consequence of being born Small for Gestational Age (SGA). This study has applied metabolomics to identify whether there are changes in these pathways in pre-pubertal short SGA children and aimed to compare the intracellular and extracellular metabolome in fibroblasts derived from healthy children and SGA children with post-natal growth impairment.MethodsSkin fibroblast cell lines were established from eight SGA children (age 1.8 -10.3 years) with failure of catch-up growth and from three healthy control children. Confluent cells were incubated in serum free media and the spent growth medium (metabolic footprint) and intracellular metabolome (metabolic fingerprint) were analysed by gas-chromatography mass spectrometry.Results19 metabolites were significantly altered between SGA and control cell lines. The greatest fold difference (FD) was seen for alanine (fingerprint FD, SGA: control) 0.3, p=0.01 and footprint FD=0.19, p=0.01), aspartic acid (fingerprint FD=5.21, p=0.01) and cystine (footprint FD=1.66, p=0.02). Network analysis of the differentially expressed metabolites predicted inhibition of insulin and activation of ERK/AKT/PI3K signalling in SGA cells.ConclusionsThis study indicates that changes in cellular metabolism associated with both growth failure and insulin insensitivity are present in pre-pubertal short children born SGA.
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