An observational study in Adiposity, sponsored by Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. Completed. Open to female participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2017-10-23.
Sponsored by Belfast Health and Social Care Trust · Observational
This study investigates the associations between measured maternal lipids (Total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol , triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) at 28 weeks' gestation and offspring adiposity at 5-7 years. This was examined in a large observational study based in Belfast, UK.
The concept of fuel mediated teratogenesis, as proposed by Freinkel in his 1980 Banting Lecture, postulated that altered fuel metabolism during pregnancy had a long lasting metabolic effect on the offspring. Although in the intervening years the focus has largely been on maternal glucose as the principal fetal fuel, animal studies have documented that other nutrients such as lipids can also be transferred across the placenta. Furthermore, the latter part of pregnancy is associated with a significant hyperlipidemia including hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia. Although the relation of maternal lipids during pregnancy to birth outcomes is well documented, few studies have examined this relation to longer term outcomes. Such an association, if present, would lend further support to the presence of developmental programming in the offspring based on fuel mediated teratogenesis.
Against such a background, the aim of this study was to examine the association between maternal lipids during pregnancy and later offspring adiposity controlled for relevant confounders including maternal body mass index (BMI), gestational glycemia and offspring birth weight.
The Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome (HAPO) Study was an international multicentre epidemiologic study that examined the associations of hyperglycemia during pregnancy to adverse maternal/fetal pregnancy outcomes. Eligible pregnant women attended the Royal Victoria Maternity Hospital for an oral glucose tolerance test between 24-32 weeks gestation to assess glucose tolerance. An additional fasting serum sample for analysis of lipids was taken.
The mothers and their offspring were invited to return to the study 5-7 years later. At this visit, offspring weight, height and skin fold thickness measurements were taken.
All pregnant women who attended the Royal Victoria Maternity Hospital were eligible to participate unless they met one or more of the exclusion criteria.
Exclusion Criteria:
All pregnant women who attended the Royal Victoria Maternity Hospital, Belfast were eligible to participate unless they met one or more exclusion criteria. All eligible women from the Belfast centre were invited to take part in a prospective observational study involving an additional fasting serum sample for lipids at 28 weeks gestation and long term follow up of their HAPO offspring. Only those women who had remained blinded to oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) results during pregnancy were included (fasting plasma glucose ≤5·8 mmol/L and 2-hour glucose ≤11·1 mmol/L). Offspring from these pregnancies had anthropometric measurements performed within 72 hours of birth and at age 5-7 years.
BMI Z score
Adiposity expressed as body mass index (BMI) Z score
Time frame: 5-7 years
Sum of skin fold thicknesses
Sum of triceps, subscapular and suprailiac
Time frame: 5-7 years
No study locations are listed for this record.
Plan to share: No
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
This study is completed, as verified in Oct 2017. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Belfast Health and Social Care Trust