Deficit of vitamin D in pregnancy and growth and overweight in the offspring

Abstract

Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy may increase the risk of prenatal and early postnatal overweight in offspring. Clinical trials are warranted to determine the role of vitamin D in the early origins of obesity.

An examination of whether associations exist between maternal and neonatal 25OHD and infant size and adiposity at birth, 6–9 months and 2–2.5 years of age – a longitudinal observational study from the ROLO study

“…Fewer studies have examined the longer-term associations of maternal or neonatal 25OHD and offspring length. In this cohort, no association was observed between neonatal 25OHD or maternal 25OHD in early or late pregnancy and offspring length at 6-9 months or 2-2.5 years of age which is similar to the results of other longitudinal studies examining these associations at various ages in childhood [15,23,45]. Leffelaar et al [42] also examined offspring height, up to 1 year of age and found that infants of mothers who were vitamin D deficient in early pregnancy were significantly shorter than infants of mothers who were not deficient at 1 month of age.…”

“…This finding is similar to a study by Gale et al found no association between late pregnancy 25OHD and birth length [23]. A study by Morales et al of early pregnancy 25OHD likewise found no association [15]. Previous studies have also reported positive associations between birth length and maternal 25OHD levels in pregnancy [17] and with maternal UVB exposure [43,44].…”

“…Leffelaar et al observed significantly greater offspring weight at 6 and 9 months of age in children whose mothers were deficient rather than sufficient in vitamin D in early pregnancy, however offspring adiposity was not examined [42]. A study of early pregnancy found that 25OHD <50 nmol/L was associated with increased BMI-for-age z-score and risk of overweight at 1 year of age but not at 4 years of age [15]. Whereas, Eckhardt et al found that BMI-for-age z-score and weightfor-age z-score at 4 months and 1 year of age were not significantly associated with maternal vitamin D deficiency at 20 weeks gestation [17].…”

“…There is evidence that maternal and fetal vitamin D status or season of birth may be associated with offspring adiposity [13][14][15][16][17]. However, some studies have reported no such associations between maternal 25OHD and offspring health [18][19][20][21][22][23].…”

Association between obesity and asthma – epidemiology, pathophysiology and clinical profile

“…Some of the most important factors linking asthma with obesity are birth weight, both low and high (49) , and breast-feeding (62) . In addition, poor maternal diet, low in micronutrients such as vitamins D, E and C, and maternal weight gain during pregnancy were shown to increase the chances of the offspring having asthma and/or obesity later in life (91)(92)(93)(94)(95) . These factors could contribute to the coexistence of these two conditions (86) ; however, the evidence is rather ambiguous.…”