Abstract
Background: Leptin is potentially involved in the correction of early postnatal growth of infants having deviated from their genetic trajectory in utero.
Aim: To analyse the potential mediating role of cord blood leptin level in the association between neonatal anthropometry and early postnatal growth in the mother–child EDEN cohort.
Subjects and methods: We included term newborns with information on leptin, birth weight and length, and weight and length SD-score changes over the first 2 months. The Baron and Kenny method was used to quantify the mediation contribution of leptin in the association between neonatal anthropometry and postnatal growth, considering several confounders. Analyses were stratified to consider sexual dimorphism.
Results: A 1 SD higher birth weight was associated with a lower 2-months weight variation of 0.27 (0.18; 0.36) SD and a 0.16 (0.06; 0.26) SD, in boys and girls, respectively. Leptin explained 20% and 25% of these associations, respectively. Leptin did not mediate the association between birth length and birth-to-2 months length variation.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that cord blood leptin may not be involved in the negative association between birth length and postnatal length growth but may play a modest mediating role in early postnatal catch-up or catch-down in weight.
Acknowledgements
The authors are extremely grateful to all the families who took part in this study, the midwives and psychologists who recruited and followed them, and the whole EDEN team, including research scientists, engineers, technicians and managers and especially Josiane Sahuquillo and Edith Lesieux for their commitment and their role in the success of the study. The authors also acknowledge the commitment of the members of the EDEN Mother-Child Cohort Study Group: I. Annesi-Maesano, J.Y. Bernard, J. Botton, M.A. Charles, P. Dargent-Molina, B. de Lauzon-Guillain, P. Ducimetière, M. de Agostini, B. Foliguet, A. Forhan, X. Fritel, A. Germa, V. Goua, R. Hankard, B. Heude, M. Kaminski, B. Larroque†, N. Lelong, J. Lepeule, G. Magnin, L. Marchand, C. Nabet, F Pierre, R. Slama, M.J. Saurel-Cubizolles, M. Schweitzer, O. Thiebaugeorges.
Disclosure statement
The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose.