Abstract
Background:
Preterm, very-low-birth-weight (PT-VLBW) neonates are at-risk for metabolic syndrome later in life. At 1–3 y, they exhibit excessive weight-for-length z-scores (Wt-LZ) and elevated systolic blood pressures (SBP). Serum adipokines are biomarkers of adiposity, but expression in PT-VLBW infants is unclear. We examined the correlation between serum adipokine levels, anthropometric measures and SBP in PT-VLBW neonates at follow-up.
Methods:
This was a cross-sectional cohort study of PT-VLBW infants at 1, 2, and 3 y of age (40/cohort). We measured SBP, abdominal circumference (AC) and anthropometrics; calculated age/gender-specific z-scores for Wt, L, Wt-L and subscapular skin fold (SSZ), and measured serum adipokines.
Results:
Serum leptin was unaffected by chronologic age and gender, but was positively correlated with weight, Wt-LZ, AC, and SSZ at 1 and 3 y (P < 0.01). Female infants at 1 and 3 y had a more significant relationship than males between serum leptin and SSZ (P < 0.001, R = 0.75 and P < 0.001, R = 0.70, respectively). Adiponectin levels were 16–20% lower at 3 vs. 1–2 y (P = 0.02, ANOVA) and negatively correlated with SBP.
Conclusion:
Although serum leptin was unrelated to advancing age, gender, and SBP in PT-VLBW infants, levels correlated with measures of adiposity at 1 and 3 y, females > males, suggesting leptin resistance may occur in early infancy.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported in part by the George L. MacGregor Professorship held by Rosenfeld. Frankfurt received a Young Investigator Award for the presentation of the leptin data at the 2011 annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies. Thanks to the staff in the Low Birth Weight Clinic for assisting in the conductance of this study.
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Duncan, A., Frankfurt, J., Heyne, R. et al. Biomarkers of adiposity are elevated in preterm very-low-birth-weight infants at 1, 2, and 3 y of age. Pediatr Res 81, 780–786 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/pr.2017.11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/pr.2017.11
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