- © 2017 American Society for Nutrition
Prenatal Docosahexaenoic Acid Supplementation Does Not Affect Nonfasting Serum Lipid and Glucose Concentrations of Offspring at 4 Years of Age in a Follow-Up of a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial in Mexico1,2,3
- Yareni Gutierrez-Gomez4,6,
- Aryeh D Stein7,
- Usha Ramakrishnan7,
- Albino Barraza-Villarreal5,
- Hortensia Moreno-Macias8,
- Carlos Aguilar-Salinas9,
- Isabelle Romieu10, and
- Juan A Rivera4,*
- 4Center for Nutrition and Health Research and
- 5Center for Population Health Research, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (National Institute of Public Health), Cuernavaca, Mexico;
- 6Department of Nutrition, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education), Mexico City, Mexico;
- 7Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA;
- 8Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Metropolitan Autonomous University), Mexico City, Mexico;
- 9Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán (National Institute of Medical Science and Nutrition Salvador Zubiran), Mexico City, Mexico; and
- 10Nutritional Epidemiology Department, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France
- ↵*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jrivera{at}insp.mx.
Abstract
Background: Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) has regulatory effects on lipid and glucose metabolism. Differences in DHA availability during specific developmental windows may program metabolic changes.
Objective: We investigated the effects of maternal DHA supplementation during pregnancy on the nonfasting serum lipid and glucose concentrations of offspring at 4 y of age.
Methods: We used data from the Prenatal Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation, Growth, and Development trial, a double-blind randomized controlled trial conducted in Mexico. Pregnant women were supplemented daily with 400 mg DHA or placebo from 18–22 wk of gestation to delivery. The primary outcomes of the trial were offspring growth and neurological development. Nonfasting blood samples were obtained from the offspring at 4 y of age. We analyzed serum total, HDL, non-HDL, and LDL cholesterol; the total-to–HDL cholesterol ratio; apolipoprotein B (apoB); triglycerides; glucose; and insulin as secondary outcomes and compared their concentrations between treatment groups.
Results: Data from 524 offspring were available. The women were compliant with the intervention based on pill counts and changes in cord blood and breast milk DHA concentrations. None of the between-group differences (DHA compared with placebo), adjusted for maternal height and time since last food intake, were significant (P range 0.27–0.83). Means (95% CIs) were as follows: total cholesterol (TC), 1.73 mg/dL (−2.63, 6.09 mg/dL); HDL cholesterol, 0.66 mg/dL (−1.07, 2.39 mg/dL); non-HDL cholesterol, 1.77 mg/dL (−1.83, 5.37 mg/dL); LDL cholesterol, 1.62 mg/dL (−2.21, 5.45 mg/dL); TC:HDL ratio, 0.01 (−0.09, 0.11); apoB, −0.15 mg/dL (−2.78, 2.48 mg/dL); triglycerides, 0.21 mg/dL (−10.93, 10.52 mg/dL); glucose, −0.67 mg/dL (−2.46, 1.11 mg/dL); and insulin, 0.62 μU/mL (−0.88, 2.11 μU/mL).
Conclusion: Prenatal DHA supplementation does not affect nonfasting serum lipid and glucose concentrations of offspring at 4 y of age. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00646360.
Footnotes
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↵1 Supported by grants from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD043099 and HD058818), the National Council of Sciences and Technology (grant no. 14429), and the March of Dimes Foundation.
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↵2 Author disclosures: Y Gutierrez-Gomez, AD Stein, U Ramakrishnan, A Barraza-Villarreal, H Moreno-Macias, C Aguilar-Salinas, I Romieu, and JA Rivera, no conflicts of interest.
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↵3 Supplemental Table 1 is available from the “Online Supporting Material” link in the online posting of the article and from the same link in the online table of contents at http://jn.nutrition.org.
- Manuscript received: June 30, 2016.
- Initial review completed: August 10, 2016.
- Revision accepted: November 22, 2016.
