Abstract
Background & objectives: Early life is a critical window for adiposity programming and metabolic profile may affect this programming. We investigated if plasma metabolites at age 3 months were associated with fat mass, fat free mass and abdominal subcutaneous and visceral fat outcomes at age 2 years in a cohort of healthy infants and if these associations were different between infants receiving exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) and those with exclusive formula feeding (EFF). Methods: In 318 healthy term-born infants, we determined body composition by Dual Energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and visceral fat by abdominal ultrasound at 2 age years. High-throughput metabolic profiling was performed on blood samples collected at age 3 months. Tertiles were generated for each body composition outcome and differences in plasma metabolite levels at age 3 months between infants with high and low body composition outcomes at age 2 years were evaluated in general, as well as separately in EBF- and EFF-infants. Results: Distinct plasma metabolite variables identified at age 3 months were associated with body composition at 2 years. These metabolites included several classes of lyso-phospholipids. Associations between the metabolites at age 3 months and fat mass index, fat mass percentage, fat free mass index and visceral fat at 2 years were predominantly found in EBF-infants. Conclusion: Associations between plasma metabolite levels at age 3 months and high body fat mass at 2 years depend on infant feeding type. These findings contribute to our insight into the importance of infant feeding on adiposity programming in early life.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1290-1296 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Clinical Nutrition |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 21 Apr 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was funded by the EU Commission to the JPI HDHL program ‘Call III Biomarkers’ for the project: BioFN - Biomarkers for Infant Fat Mass Development and Nutrition (Grant agreement No 696295 ), administrated in Denmark by Innovation Fund Denmark (grant number 4203-00005B ), Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development(ZonMW) (grant number 529051013 ), in the UK by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council ( BB/P028195/1 ) and Danone Nutricia Research, The Netherlands (to Rotterdam). AK is supported by the NIHRCambridgeBiomedical Research Centre ( 146281 ) and KKO is funded by the Medical Research Council ( MC_UU_00006 /2 ).
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© 2022 The Author(s)