Concentrations of antioxidant vitamins in maternal and cord serum and their effect on birth outcomes.
BACKGROUND
Emerging evidence indicates that maternal oxidative stress during pregnancy could impair fetal growth and that antioxidant vitamins (e.g. vitamins A, E and C) have a significant role in maintaining physiological processes of pregnancy and growth.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the concentrations of vitamins A, E, and C in pair-matched maternal and cord serum samples of neonate, and thus to investigate the relationship between maternal serum levels of these vitamins at delivery and birth outcomes.


METHODS
A total of 143 mother-neonate pairs were recruited into the cross-sectional descriptive study. Demographic information was investigated by questionnaire. After delivery, both cord and maternal blood were collected for quantification of serum levels of vitamins A, E and C by HPLC.


RESULTS
Maternal serum levels of vitamins A and E were significantly higher than those in cord serum. In contrast, vitamin C level in cord serum was significantly higher than that in maternal serum. Further, we found that maternal vitamin A status was significantly correlated to both birth weight (r=0.19, p=0.0419) and birth height (r=0.21, p=0.0311), and these were manifested by these findings: (i) per 250.2 g reduction in birth weight concomitant with 1 micromol/L increase in maternal serum vitamin A level (p<0.01; 95% CI: 56.9-451.5); and (ii) per 1% increase in the ratio of serum vitamin A level of neonate to mother concomitant with 0.8 cm increase in birth height (p=0.049; 95% CI: 0.004-1.639).


CONCLUSIONS
Maternal vitamin A, but not vitamins E and C, during pregnancy had a significant effect on birth outcomes. Further studies are necessary to investigate the role of these antioxidant vitamins in fetal growth at various gestation stages.
Third People's Hospital, Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
Yong-Zhong
YZ
Wang
Wei-Hong
WH
Ren
Wen-qiang
WQ
Liao
Guo-Yuan
GY
Zhang
D000328:Adult; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000032:analysis*; D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000097:blood; D001724:Birth Weight; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis; D001827:Body Height; D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000737:chemistry*; D047109:Fetal Development; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D011247:Pregnancy; D039401:Prenatal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D014801:Vitamin A / Q000097:blood; D014810:Vitamin E / Q000097:blood; D014815:Vitamins / Q000097:blood*; D055815:Young Adult
D000975:Antioxidants; D014815:Vitamins; D014801:Vitamin A; D014810:Vitamin E; D001205:Ascorbic Acid