Maternal and Cord Blood Metabolite Associations with Gestational Weight Gain and Pregnancy Health Outcomes

Abstract

Pre-pregnancy obesity and excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) are risk factors for future maternal and childhood obesity. Maternal obesity is potentially communicated to the fetus in part by the metabolome, altering the child’s metabolic program in early development. Fasting maternal blood samples from 37 singleton pregnancies at 25–28 weeks of gestation were obtained from mothers with pre-pregnancy body mass indexes (BMIs) between 18 and 40 kg/m2. Various health measures including GWG, diet, and physical activity were also assessed. At term (37–42 weeks), a venous umbilical cord sample was obtained. Serum metabolomic profiles were measured using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy as well as a gut and metabolic hormone panel. Maternal and cord serum metabolites were tested for associations with pre-pregnancy BMI, GWG, health outcomes, and gut and metabolic hormones. While cord blood metabolites showed no significant correlation to maternal obesity status or other measured health outcomes, maternal serum metabolites showed distinct profiles for lean, overweight, and obese women. Additionally, four serum metabolites, namely, glutamate, lysine, pyruvate, and valine, allowed prediction of excessive GWG when pre-pregnancy BMI was controlled. Metabolic biomarkers predictive of GWG are reported and, if validated, could aid in the guidance of prenatal weight management plans as the majority of pregnancy weight gain occurs in the third trimester.

Impact of combined consumption of fish oil and probiotics on the serum metabolome in pregnant women with overweight or obesity

“…This was evident in our previous study in which we observed that the metabolic profile of women who were developing GDM differed already in early pregnancy from those who would remain healthy [11]. Others have demonstrated links between the maternal serum metabolome and excessive gestational weight gain [6], term preeclampsia [12], fetal growth restriction [13] and spontaneous preterm birth [5] or stillbirth [14]. Previous data using metabolomics in non-pregnant adults revealed some benefits of either probiotics or fish oil on metabolism, particularly on lipid metabolism [15−18].…”

“…As obesity is increasingly encountered in reproductive age women [3], novel approaches are necessary to mitigate the detrimental effects of overweight and obesity on maternal metabolism. Indeed, the maternal metabolome associates with BMI [4], and overweight and obese women have been demonstrated to exhibit a distinct serum metabolic profile from that of normal weight women [5,6]. These findings highlight the need to search for effective interventions to minimize the aberrant metabolism occurring during pregnancy.…”

Longitudinal associations of pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain with maternal urinary metabolites: an NYU CHES study

“…We also cannot speculate on downstream effects of the associations we observed on fetal development or child health, as our metabolite measures are from maternal urine, limiting their application to the fetal metabolome. For example, research has been mixed on whether maternal serum metabolite concentrations are correlated with cord blood metabolites, and urinary metabolites are not always directly related to serum metabolites ( 16 , 19 , 59 , 60 ). Although the majority of research cited in this study utilized metabolite concentrations measured in plasma and serum and not in urine, differing metabolite concentrations between groups, regardless of directionality, indicates a potential perturbation in metabolite concentration by the exposure.…”

Feature Impact Assessment: A New Score to Identify Relevant Metabolomics Features in Artificial Neural Networks

“…FIA algorithm performance was validated on an additional dataset of human samples (Shearer et al, 2021), employing a different ANN architecture. Results were comparable and are shown in the Supplemental Materials.…”