Placental AA/EPA Ratio Is Associated with Obesity Risk Parameters in the Offspring at 6 Years of Age

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 24; no. 12; p. 10087
• Main Authors: Gómez-Vilarrubla, Ariadna, Mas-Parés, Berta, Carreras-Badosa, Gemma, Jové, Mariona, Berdún, Rebeca, Bonmatí-Santané, Alexandra, de Zegher, Francis, Ibañez, Lourdes, López-Bermejo, Abel, Bassols, Judit
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.06.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: AA/EPA ratio; Adipose tissue; Arachidonic acid; Birth weight; Body fat; Body mass index; Body size; Children; Confounding (Statistics); Eicosapentaenoic acid; fatty acid transporters; Fatty acids; Fetuses; Gestational age; Health aspects; Insulin resistance; LC-PUFA; lipidomics; Metabolism; Mothers; Obesity; Parameters; Perinatal exposure; Placenta; Pregnancy; Pregnant women; Regression analysis; Risk; Risk factors; Unsaturated fatty acids; visceral adiposity; Women; Spain; fatty acid transporters; LC-PUFA; placenta; fetal programming; visceral adiposity; AA/EPA ratio; lipidomics
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms241210087

During pregnancy, maternal polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are transferred to the fetus through the placenta by specific FA transporters (FATP). A higher perinatal exposure to n-6 over n-3 PUFA could be linked to excess fat mass and obesity development later in life. In this context, we aimed to assess the associations between long chain PUFAs (LC-PUFAs) (n-6, n-3, and n-6/n-3 ratios) measured in the placenta at term birth with obesity-related parameters in the offspring at 6 years of age and assess whether these associations are dependent on the placental relative expression of fatty acid transporters. As results, the PUFAn-6/PUFAn-3 ratio was 4/1, which scaled up to 15/1 when considering only the arachidonic acid/eicosapentaenoic acid ratio (AA/EPA ratio). Positive associations between the AA/EPA ratio and offspring's obesity risk parameters were found with weight-SDS, BMI-SDS, percent fat mass-SDS, visceral fat, and HOMA-IR (r from 0.204 to 0.375; all < 0.05). These associations were more noticeable in those subjects with higher expression of fatty acid transporters. Therefore, in conclusion, a higher placental AA/EPA ratio is positively associated with offspring's visceral adiposity and obesity risk parameters, which become more apparent in subjects with higher expressions of placental FATPs. Our results support the potential role of n-6 and n-3 LC-PUFA in the fetal programming of obesity risk in childhood. For the present study, 113 healthy pregnant women were recruited during the first trimester of pregnancy and their offspring were followed up at 6 years of age. The fatty acid profiles and the expression of fatty acid transporters (FATP1 and FATP4) were analyzed from placental samples at birth. Associations between LC-PUFA (n-6, n-3, and n-6/n-3 ratios) and obesity risk parameters (weight, body mass index (BMI), percent fat mass, visceral fat, and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR)) in the offspring at 6 years of age were examined.