Pediatric Department, Consorcio Hospital General, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBEROBN), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
J Transl Med. 2019 May 7;17(1):145. doi: 10.1186/s12967-019-1896-1.
Nutrition of the newborn during the early postnatal period seems to be of capital importance and there is clinical evidence showing the protective effect of breastfeeding compared with formula feeding on childhood obesity and its comorbidities. Infants born small for gestation age may be more sensitive to the type of feeding during lactation. Here, we aimed to analyze the impact of birth weight and the type of infant feeding on the expression levels in peripheral blood cells of selected candidate genes involved in energy homeostasis in 5-year-old children, to find out potential early biomarkers of metabolic programming effects during this period of metabolic plasticity.
Forty subjects were recruited at birth and divided in four groups according to birth weight (adequate or small for gestational age) and type of infant feeding (breastfeeding or formula feeding). They were followed from birth to the age of 5 years.
At 5 years, no significant differences regarding anthropometric parameters were found between groups, and all children had normal biochemical values. Expression levels of UCP2 and MC4R in peripheral blood cells were lower and higher, respectively, in formula feeding children compared with breastfeeding ones (P = 0.002 and P = 0.064, two-way ANOVA). Differences were more marked and significant by Student's t test in small for gestation age children (P < 0.001 and P = 0.017, respectively). Transcript levels of FASN and FTO in peripheral blood cells were also different according to the type of infant feeding, but only in small for gestation age children.
Altogether, these results suggest that small for gestation age infants are more sensitive to the type of feeding during lactation, and transcript levels of particular genes in peripheral blood cells, especially the MC4R/UCP2 mRNA ratio, may precisely reflect these effects in the absence of clear differences in phenotypic traits.
新生儿在出生后的早期阶段的营养似乎至关重要，有临床证据表明母乳喂养相较于配方奶喂养对儿童肥胖及其合并症具有保护作用。胎龄小的婴儿可能对哺乳期的喂养方式更为敏感。在这里，我们旨在分析出生体重和婴儿喂养方式对 5 岁儿童外周血细胞中参与能量平衡的候选基因表达水平的影响，以寻找代谢可塑性时期代谢编程影响的潜在早期生物标志物。
在出生时招募了 40 名受试者，并根据出生体重（适于胎龄或小于胎龄）和婴儿喂养方式（母乳喂养或配方奶喂养）将其分为四组。从出生到 5 岁对他们进行随访。
在 5 岁时，各组之间的人体测量参数无显著差异，所有儿童的生化值均正常。与母乳喂养的儿童相比，配方奶喂养的儿童外周血单核细胞中 UCP2 和 MC4R 的表达水平分别降低和升高（P=0.002 和 P=0.064，双向方差分析）。在胎龄较小的儿童中，通过 Student's t 检验差异更为显著（P<0.001 和 P=0.017，分别）。外周血单核细胞中 FASN 和 FTO 的转录水平也因婴儿喂养方式而异，但仅在胎龄较小的儿童中。
总的来说，这些结果表明，胎龄较小的婴儿对哺乳期的喂养方式更为敏感，外周血单个核细胞中特定基因的转录水平，特别是 MC4R/UCP2 mRNA 比值，可能在没有明显表型特征差异的情况下准确反映这些影响。
