Tuya Chuluuntulga, Mutch William J, Haggarty Paul, Campbell Doris M, Cumming Alastair, Kelly Kevin, Broom Iain, McNeill Geraldine
Clinical Research Unit, NHS Grampian, Westburn House, Foresterhill, Aberdeen, UK.
Br J Nutr. 2006 Mar;95(3):504-10. doi: 10.1079/bjn20051582.
Twins can be used to investigate the biological basis for observed associations between birth weight and later disease risk, as they experience in utero growth restriction compared with singletons, which can differ in magnitude within twin pairs despite partial or total genetic identity. In the present study, sixty monozygotic and seventy-one dizygotic same-sex twin pairs aged 19-50 years and eighty-nine singleton controls matched for age, gestational age, sex, maternal age and parity were recruited from an obstetric database. Associations between fasting lipid levels and birth weight were assessed by linear regression with adjustment for possible confounding factors. Twins were significantly lighter at birth but were not significantly different in adult height, weight or lipid levels from the singleton controls. There was a significant inverse association between birth weight and both total and LDL-cholesterol levels among singleton controls (-0.53 mmol/l per kg (95 % CI -0.97, -0.09), P = 0.02 and -0.39 mmol/l per kg (95 % CI -0.76, -0.02), P = 0.04, respectively), but there was no significant association between birth weight and lipid levels in either unpaired or within-pair analysis of twins. The results suggest that the in utero growth restriction and early catch-up growth experienced by twins does not increase the risk of an atherogenic lipid profile in adult life.
双胞胎可用于研究出生体重与后期疾病风险之间观察到的关联的生物学基础，因为与单胎相比，他们经历了子宫内生长受限，尽管双胞胎部分或完全基因相同，但双胞胎对之间的生长受限程度可能不同。在本研究中，从一个产科数据库招募了60对年龄在19至50岁之间的同卵双胞胎和71对异卵同性双胞胎，以及89名年龄、孕周、性别、母亲年龄和产次相匹配的单胎对照。通过线性回归评估空腹血脂水平与出生体重之间的关联，并对可能的混杂因素进行调整。双胞胎出生时明显较轻，但成年后的身高、体重或血脂水平与单胎对照无显著差异。在单胎对照中，出生体重与总胆固醇和低密度脂蛋白胆固醇水平之间存在显著的负相关（分别为每千克-0.53毫摩尔/升（95%可信区间-0.97，-0.09），P = 0.02和每千克-0.39毫摩尔/升（95%可信区间-0.76，-0.02），P = 0.04），但在双胞胎的非配对或配对内分析中，出生体重与血脂水平之间均无显著关联。结果表明，双胞胎经历的子宫内生长受限和早期追赶生长并不会增加成年后患动脉粥样硬化血脂谱的风险。
