Maternal lipidomic signatures of preterm and small-for-gestational-age newborn infants in low- and middle-income countries.
Maternal lipid levels change dynamically during gestation to support normal fetal growth. To obtain a detailed footprint of these changes and their differences in pregnancies with preterm or small-for-gestational-age (SGA) neonates, we analyzed 641 lipids and 639 metabolites in plasma from women by 24 weeks of pregnancy from three cohorts from low- and middle-income countries: Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. We consistently found a significant lipid imbalance with increased lipid levels that preceded preterm birth and decreased levels that preceded SGA births. Changes were most pronounced in triglycerides, including triglycerides containing proinflammatory omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in pregnancies with preterm infants. A machine learning model for prediction of preterm birth had modest performance [area under the receiver operator curve (AUC) = 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) = (0.68, 0.70)] and lower performance for predicting SGA [AUC = 0.64, CI 95% = (0.62, 0.65)]. Increased triglycerides containing proinflammatory PUFAs provide further evidence in favor of a previously considered dietary supplementation with the long-chain fatty acids.
Authors
- Gwendoline Chimhini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7280-3801)
- Gary L. Darmstadt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7522-5824)
- William W. Hay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2647-8323)
- Michael Snyder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0784-7987)
- Kumanan Wilson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1741-7705)
- Steven Hawken (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3341-9022)
- Samuel M. Lancaster
- Gary M. Shaw (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7438-4914)
- John A. Kerner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0380-6048)
- Victoria Ward (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2283-4052)
- Samir K. Saha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3820-0748)
- Xiaotao Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9608-9964)
- Hilda Mujuru (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1615-3856)
- Jonathan D. Reiss (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1460-8570)
- Ronald J. Wong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1205-6936)
- Ivana Marić (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9441-521X)
- Nancy A. Otieno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7083-4735)
- Ali Mahzarnia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2252-4529)
- David K. Stevenson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7127-0281)
Institutions
- University of Zimbabwe (ZW)
- University of Ottawa (CA)
- Nanyang Technological University (SG)
- Ottawa Hospital (CA)
- Kenya Medical Research Institute (KE)
- Bruyère (CA)
- Child Health Research Foundation (BD)
- University of Colorado Denver (US)
- Stanford University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- PubMed
- Published
- 2025-12-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adu9145
- Primary Topic
- Fatty Acid Research and Health
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00