Maternal nutrition during gestation and carotid arterial compliance in the adult offspring: the Dutch famine birth cohort.
OBJECTIVE
Experimental evidence indicates that maternal undernutrition during gestation may program hypertension in the offspring. We investigated whether maternal undernutrition leads to increased arterial stiffness.


METHODS
We measured carotid artery lumen diameter (LD), distensibility (DC), stiffness (beta), and compliance (CC) by M-mode ultrasound in 673 individuals, aged 56-61 years, who had been born as term singletons around the time of the 1944-45 Dutch famine.


RESULTS
Maternal famine exposure had no effect on any of the measures of carotid size or stiffness in the offspring. Low maternal weight at the end of pregnancy and low birth weight were associated with decreased LD (0.01 mm/kg maternal weight, sex-adjusted P < 0.001; 0.1 mm/kg birth weight, sex-adjusted P = 0.08) and CC (0.002 mm2/kPa per kg maternal weight, sex-adjusted P = 0.001; 0.03 mm2/kPa per kg birth weight, sex-adjusted P = 0.03), but neither was associated with increased beta, or decreased DC. These effects were not attenuated by adjusting for maternal protein/carbohydrate ratio in the third trimester. The association of low birth weight with increased CC diminished after adjusting for maternal weight. The association of maternal weight with CC was smaller when adjusted for LD.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that small maternal size, not poor maternal diet, in late gestation programs decreased arterial compliance in the adult offspring by affecting vessel size rather than vessel wall stiffness.
Painter
Rebecca C
RC
Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. r.c.painter@amc.uva.nl
de Rooij
Susanne R
SR
Bossuyt
Patrick M
PM
de Groot
Eric
E
Stok
Wim J
WJ
Osmond
Clive
C
Barker
David J
DJ
Bleker
Otto P
OP
Roseboom
Tessa J
TJ
D000328:Adult; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004548:Elasticity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000209:etiology; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight / Q000502:physiology*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000150:complications*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D039401:Prenatal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena