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Mothers with prepregnancy dyslipidemia confer high LDL risk to adult offspring
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Children of mothers with dyslipidemia before pregnancy are at high risk for having high LDL as adults, according to findings published in JAMA Cardiology.
Researchers analyzed 538 parent–offspring pairs (241 mother–offspring, 297 father–offspring; mean age of offspring, 26 years) from the Framingham Heart Study, comparing maternal prepregnancy LDL levels with paternal prepregnancy and concurrent LDL levels in terms of their association with LDL levels of offspring as adults. They defined high LDL levels as those higher than 130 mg/dL.
As part of the analysis, the researchers adjusted for confounders such as BMI, smoking, diet, physical activity and genetic variants known to be associated with high LDL.
“The purpose ... was to determine whether there is a residual association of maternal prepregnancy and adult offspring LDL levels in excess of shared early and later life environment, learned behaviors (diet and physical activity), anthropometric features (BMI) and inherited genetic sequence variation, a contribution that may be attributable to maternal intergenerational, epigenetic transmission,” Michael M. Mendelson, MD, ScM, and colleagues wrote.
After adjustment for confounders, adult offspring LDL levels were associated with maternal LDL levels before pregnancy (beta = 0.32 mg/dL; standard error, 0.05; P < .001), according to the researchers.
They found that adults with mothers who had high LDL levels before pregnancy were more likely to have elevated LDL (OR = 3.8; 95% CI, 1.5-9.8) compared with those who did not. They also found that those with mothers who had high LDL levels before pregnancy had adjusted LDL levels 18 mg/dL (95% CI, 9-27) higher than those who did not.
They determined that maternal prepregnancy LDL levels could explain 13% of the variation in LDL levels of offspring beyond traditional risk factors and common genetic variants.
“The findings support the possibility of a maternal epigenetic contribution to [CVD] risk in the general population,” Mendelson and colleagues wrote. “Further research is warranted to determine whether ongoing public health efforts to identify and reduce dyslipidemia in young adults prior to their childbearing years may have additional potential health benefits for the subsequent generation.” – by Erik Swain
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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