Infants born large-for-gestational-age display slower growth in early infancy, but no epigenetic changes at birth

Abstract

We evaluated the growth patterns of infants born large-for-gestational-age (LGA) from birth to age 1 year compared to those born appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA). In addition, we investigated possible epigenetic changes associated with being born LGA. Seventy-one newborns were classified by birth weight as AGA (10th–90th percentile; n = 42) or LGA (>90th percentile; n = 29). Post-natal follow-up until age 1 year was performed with clinical assessments at 3, 6, and 12 months. Genome-wide DNA methylation was analysed on umbilical tissue in 19 AGA and 27 LGA infants. At birth, LGA infants had greater weight (p < 0.0001), length (p < 0.0001), ponderal index (p = 0.020), as well as greater head (p < 0.0001), chest (p = 0.044), and abdominal (p = 0.007) circumferences than AGA newborns. LGA infants were still larger at the age of 3 months, but by age 6 months there were no more differences between groups, due to higher length and weight increments in AGA infants between 0 and 6 months (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.002, respectively). Genome-wide analysis showed no epigenetic differences between LGA and AGA infants. Overall, LGA infants had slower growth in early infancy, being anthropometrically similar to AGA infants by 6 months of age. In addition, differences between AGA and LGA newborns were not associated with epigenetic changes.

Healthy Body Weight may Modify Effect of Abnormal Birth Weight on Metabolic Syndrome in Adolescents

“…The mechanisms linking LGA and later health consequences are debatable as well. For instance, while experimental evidence indicated that overnutrition may program MetS through epigenetic changes , such alterations were not observed in LGA infants at birth . Although the present study accords with our predecessors and suggests LGA may not relate to later cardiometabolic outcomes, as only a few studies have been performed on growth outcomes in LGA infants, further research is warranted to clarify these outcomes.…”

“…The mechanisms linking LGA and later health consequences are debatable as well. For instance, while experimental evidence indicated that overnutrition may program MetS through epigenetic changes (39), such alterations were not observed in LGA infants at birth (40).…”

Being born large for gestational age is associated with earlier pubertal take‐off and longer growth duration: a longitudinal study

“…This is a new finding, given that up to now limited information has been available on growth in LGA children. Few previous studies have mainly assessed physical growth in the LGA population during the first 4–6 years of life . Some of these studies have shown a catch‐down growth in LGA children during the first months of life .…”

“…However, little is known on the relationship between being born LGA and pubertal growth. Few studies have assessed physical growth in terms of height and weight gain in LGA children during the first four to six years of life . Whereas some of these studies have reported a catch‐down growth in children born LGA during the first years of life , other studies have shown that those born LGA tend to remain longer and heavier during the first years of life compared to their peers .…”

mCSEA: Detecting subtle differentially methylated regions

“…However, these tools may fail to detect significant DMRs in complex diseases or heterogeneous phenotypes, where there might be small differences among methylation signals but consistent across the analyzed regions and samples. Therefore, no individual CpGs or regions may meet the threshold for statistical significance in many studies, although there may be biologically meaningful differences (see for example Bohlin et al, 2015;Chiavaroli et al, 2015;van Dongen et al, 2015;Gervin et al, 2012;Kim et al, 2017).…”