Maternal Night-Fasting Interval during Pregnancy Is Directly Associated with Neonatal Head Circumference and Adiposity in Girls but Not Boys

Maternal Night-Fasting Interval during Pregnancy Is Directly Associated with Neonatal Head Circumference and Adiposity in Girls but Not Boys

The Journal of Nutrition

10.3945/jn.117.250639

https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.117.250639

Poh Hui Wee, See Ling Loy, Marjorelee T. Colega, Yin Bun Cheung, Izzuddin M. Aris, Jerry Kok Yen Chan, Keith M. Godfrey, Peter D. Gluckman, Kok Hian Tan, Lynette Pei-chi Shek, Yap-Seng Chong, Padmapriya Natarajan, Falk Müller-Riemenschneider, Ngee Lek, Victor Samuel Rajadurai, Mya Thway Tint, Yung Seng Lee, Mary Foong-Fong Chong, Fabian Yap

Food timing

07 June 2017

See Ling Loy, Poh Hui Wee, Marjorelee T Colega, Yin Bun Cheung, Izzuddin M Aris, Jerry Kok Yen Chan, Keith M Godfrey, Peter D Gluckman, Kok Hian Tan, Lynette Pei-Chi Shek, Yap-Seng Chong, Padmapriya Natarajan, Falk Müller-Riemenschneider, Ngee Lek, Victor Samuel Rajadurai, Mya-Thway Tint, Yung Seng Lee, Mary Foong-Fong Chong, Fabian Yap, Maternal Night-Fasting Interval during Pregnancy Is Directly Associated with Neonatal Head Circumference and Adiposity in Girls but Not Boys, The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 147, Issue 7, July 2017, Pages 1384–1391, https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.117.250639

Background: Synchrony between daily feeding-fasting signals and circadian rhythms has been shown to improve metabolic health in animals and adult humans, but the potential programming effect on fetal growth is unknown. Objective: We examined the associations of the maternal night-fasting interval during pregnancy with offspring birth size and adiposity. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of mother-offspring dyads within the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) cohort. For 384 mothers aged 30.8 6 4.8 y (mean 6 SD), the night-fasting interval at 26–28 wk of gestation was determined from a 3-d food diary based on the average of the fasting duration at night (1900–0659). Offspring birth weight, length, and head circumference were measured and converted to weight-for-gestational age (GA), length-for-GA, and head circumference–for-GA z scores, respectively, by using local customized percentile charts. The percentage of neonatal total body fat (TBF) was derived by using a validated prediction equation. Multivariable general linear models, stratified by child sex, were performed. Results: The mean 6 SD maternal night-fasting interval was 9.9 6 1.3 h. In infant girls, each 1-h increase in the maternal night-fasting interval was associated with a 0.22-SD (95% CI: 0.05-, 0.40-SD; P = 0.013) increase in birth head circumference–for-GA and a 0.84% (95% CI: 0.19%, 1.49%; P = 0.012) increase in TBF at birth, after adjustment for confounders. In infant boys, no associations were observed between the maternal night-fasting interval and birth size or TBF. Conclusions: An increased maternal night-fasting interval in the late second trimester of pregnancy is associated with increased birth head circumference and TBF in girls but not boys. Our findings are in accordance with previous observations that suggest that there are sex-specific responses in fetal brain growth and adiposity, and raise the possibility of the maternal night-fasting interval as an underlying influence. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01174875. J Nutr 2017;147:1384–91.

PublisherCopyrights

Supported by the Singapore National Research Foundation under its Translational and Clinical Research Flagship Programme and administered by the Singapore Ministry of Health s National Medical Research Council (NMRC) (grants NMRC/TCR/004-NUS/2008 and NMRC/TCR/012-NUHS/2014). Additional funding was provided by the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science Technology and Research. YBC is supported by the Singapore National Research Foundation under its Clinician Scientist Award (award NMRC/CSA/0039/2012) administered by the Singapore Ministry of Health's NMRC. JKYC received salary support from the Ministry of Health's NMRC (grant NMRC/CSA/043/2012). KMG was supported by the NIH Research through the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre and the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013), project EarlyNutrition under grant agreement 289346.

The full paper can be downloaded for free at the publisher's URL: https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.117.250639

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/15920

1541-6100
0022-3166

Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences