The Serum Cholesterol Level of the Prematurely Born Infant and Its Mother

Abstract

Although Virchow (1) in 1847 had shown that the milky material in the blood of pregnant women was fatty in nature, it was not until 1911, that Neumann and Hermann (2) first actually demonstrated an increased total blood cholesterol during pregnancy. Both free and ester cholesterol were found to be increased in plasma and serum by Slemons and Stander (3) and others (4 to 7). There is general agreement that the total cholesterol begins to rise early in the second trimester gradually reaching its peak at the eighth month, the average increase being approximately 25 per cent above normal.In contrast to the high values found in the maternal circulation, it had been noted by Boyd and Wilson (8), Needham (9), Mayer (10), Schlossmann (11), and Muhlbock and Kaufmann (12), that the total cholesterol content of the fetal serum (or blood) was quite low. All except the first of these authors, therefore, have doubted the permeability of the human placenta to cholesterol.Inasmuch as recent evidence suggests that cholesterol may be vital in steroid metabolism (13 to 16), it was decided in connection with related problems to investigate the cholesterol content of the serum of the premature infant and its mother. The author is not aware of any data in the literature on human subjects. METHOD OF STUDYAll of the blood samples used in this study were obtained from patients in the delivery room at Parkland Hospital. There was no selection of cases, those reported being taken at random. Inasmuch as most of the patients entered the hospital in active labor, it was impossible to regulate the previous diet of the patient in order to control the length of time between the last meal and delivery.2