Maternal leptin across pregnancy in women with small-for-gestational-age infants.
OBJECTIVE
We hypothesized that women with small-for-gestational-age (SGA) neonates would have lower concentrations of leptin compared to women with appropriately grown infants (AGA).


METHODS
This is a nested case-control study of normotensive nulliparous women. Cases (n = 28) delivered SGA < 10 percentile and controls (n = 77) delivered AGA. Maternal plasma leptin concentrations were compared at 18, 28, and 40 weeks' gestation via repeated measures.


RESULTS
Maternal leptin concentrations at 18 weeks were correlated with prepregnancy BMI (r = 0.69, P < .0001) and early pregnancy waist circumference (r = 0.59, P < .0001). After adjustment for maternal body composition, leptin was lower across pregnancy in women with SGA compared to AGA neonates (13.6 vs 15.2 ng/mL at 18 weeks; 13.6 vs 17.3 ng/mL at 28 weeks; 16.6 vs 20.7 ng/mL at 40 weeks; P = .04).


CONCLUSIONS
Maternal leptin was correlated with maternal adiposity; however, after adjustment for body composition, leptin was lower across pregnancy in women with SGA.
Catov
Janet M
JM
Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA. jmcst43@pitt.edu
Patrick
Thelma E
TE
Powers
Robert W
RW
Ness
Roberta B
RB
Harger
Gail
G
Roberts
James M
JM
D000328:Adult; D001823:Body Composition; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D008078:Cholesterol, LDL / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000378:metabolism; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007236:Infant, Small for Gestational Age / Q000097:blood*; D018970:Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 1 / Q000097:blood; D020738:Leptin / Q000097:blood*; D010928:Placental Lactogen / Q000097:blood; D011247:Pregnancy; D013002:Somatomedins / Q000032:analysis; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio
D008078:Cholesterol, LDL; C032231:IGFBP1 protein, human; D018970:Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 1; D020738:Leptin; D013002:Somatomedins; D010928:Placental Lactogen