Early Life Origins of Low-Grade Inflammation and Atherosclerosis Risk in Children and Adolescents
Received 13 January 2009; received in revised form 1 April 2009; accepted 24 April 2009. published online 13 July 2009.
Objective
To examine the relationship between birth weight and later low-grade inflammation in children and adolescents.
Study design
We selected 166 children (49.4% boys; aged, 9.5 ± 0.3 years) and 126 adolescents (43.7% males; aged, 15.5 ± 0.4 years) from the Swedish part of the European Youth Heart Study. Birth weight data were collected from parental recall. Low-grade inflammatory markers include C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, and complement factors C3 and C4. Fatness was measured by the sum of 5 skinfold thicknesses. Cardiorespiratory fitness was measured with a maximal ergometer bike test. The association between birth weight and low-grade inflammatory markers was examined with multiple regression analyses.
Results
Birth weight was negatively associated with fibrinogen (β = −0.059; P = .036), C3 (β = −0.019; P = .010), and C4 (β = −0.024; P = .031), after controlling for sex, pubertal status, mother's body mass index and socioeconomic status, fatness and fitness. Birth weight was not associated to later C-reactive protein level (all P > .1).
Conclusions
Our results showed that smaller birth weight is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation in children and adolescents. Because of the implication of complement factors on atherosclerosis process, these results contribute to explain the increased cardiovascular risk associated with low birth weight.
aDepartment of Nutrition and Food Science, University of the Basque Country, Vitoria, Spain
bUnit for Preventive Nutrition, Department of Biosciences and Nutrition at NOVUM, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden
cGrupo EFFECTS-262, Department of Physiology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
Reprint requests: Idoia Labayen, PhD, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of the Basque Country, Paseo de la Universidad, 7, 01006 Vitoria, Spain.
The study was supported by grants from the Stockholm County Council (M.S.) and by the Spanish Ministry of Education (AP-2004-2745; EX-2007-1124). The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
ABSTRACT