Maternal cortisol during pregnancy and infant adiposity: a prospective investigation.

Maternal cortisol during pregnancy and infant adiposity: a prospective investigation.

J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2016 Dec 23;:jc20163025

Authors: Entringer S, Buss C, Rasmussen JM, Lindsay K, Gillen DL, Cooper DM, Wadhwa PD

Abstract
CONTEXT: Glucocorticoids play a key role during intrauterine development in cellular growth and differentiation. Evidence suggests that exposure to inappropriate concentrations of glucocorticoids during sensitive developmental periods may produce alterations in physiological systems that impact obesity risk.
OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the magnitude and stage-of-gestation specific association of maternal cortisol concentrations during pregnancy with infant adiposity.
DESIGN, PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: 67 mother-child dyads recruited in early pregnancy at university-based obstetric clinics in Southern California were followed with serial assessments from early gestation through birth until child 6 mo postnatal age. Maternal cumulative cortisol production was assessed over each of 4 consecutive days in early (≅13 wks), mid (≅24 wks) and late pregnancy (≅30 wks) (5 saliva samples/day x 4 days x 3 trimesters = 60 saliva samples/subject). Infant body composition was serially assessed in newborns (at ∼25 days postnatal age) and at ∼6 mo age with Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) imaging.
RESULTS: After adjusting for key prenatal, birth and postnatal covariates, higher maternal cortisol during the early third trimester (conditioned on prior early and mid-gestation cortisol concentrations) was significantly associated with a greater change in infant percent body fat (%BF) from 1-6 months age (partial r (adjusted for covariates)=0.379, p=0.007), accounting for approximately 14% of the variance in this measure of childhood obesity risk.
CONCLUSION: The present findings suggest a stage-of-gestation specific effect of maternal cortisol on infant adiposity gain in early postnatal life and provide evidence in humans to support the role of glucocorticoids in fetal programming of childhood obesity risk.

PMID: 28009530 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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