Inflammation and weight gain in reproductive-aged women

Abstract

Aim: To investigate whether mid-pregnancy inflammation predicts the rate of subsequent gestational weight gain (GWG) and whether inflammation at 3 years post-partum is associated with weight and waist circumference (WC) gain during a median of 4.4 years follow-up.

Subjects and methods: This study quantified CRP, IL-6 and TNF-α in plasma of 886 women at ∼28 weeks gestation and calculated GWG rate (kg/week) from blood draw to delivery. At ∼3 years post-partum, CRP and IL-6 were assessed from 351 women and weight and WC were measured at 3 and 7 years post-partum. This study used linear regression to investigate the relationship between mid-pregnancy inflammation and subsequent GWG rate and the association of inflammation at 3 years post-partum with weight and WC change during follow-up.

Results: After accounting for confounders, a small dose–response association of mid-gestation CRP with subsequent GWG was observed; women in the 4th CRP quartile gained weight at 0.05 (95% CI = 0.01, 0.10) kg/week faster than those in the 1st quartile. Neither IL-6 nor TNF-α was related to GWG. Post-partum inflammation was not associated with subsequent weight or WC gain.

Conclusions: Higher mid-gestation CRP was related to modestly higher subsequent GWG rate. Future studies are warranted to confirm these findings.

• C-reactive protein
• gestational weight gain
• inflammation
• longitudinal
• reproductive-aged women

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to the mothers and children of Project Viva for their generous participation and appreciate the invaluable assistance of past and present Project Viva staff.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

This study was funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants K24 HD 34568, HL 64925, HL 68041, P30 DK 053539. Dr Perng is funded by the Thomas O Pyle Fellowship (Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School & Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute).