Feto-maternal vitamin D status and infant whole-body bone mineral content in the first weeks of life

Abstract

Background/Objectives:Compromised vitamin D status is common in pregnancy and may have adverse impacts on fetal development. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of infant whole-body bone mineral content (WBBMC) at 8-21 days of age with feto-maternal vitamin D status in a multiethnic population in Oakland, California.Subjects/Methods:This was a cross-sectional study of 120 women and their newborn infants. Maternal and cord blood were collected at delivery. WBBMC was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in term-born infants 8-21days post birth.Results:No significant association was observed between unadjusted or size-adjusted WBBMC and feto-maternal vitamin D status analyzed continuously or categorically. In multivariate modeling, unadjusted WBBMC was predicted by bone area (P0.0001), weight-for-age (P0.0001) and weight-for-length (P0.0005) Z-scores, but not by feto-maternal vitamin D status. Anthropometric predictors but not vitamin D remained significant in the multivariate model after adjustment of WBBMC for weight, bone area (bone mineral density) or logarithmically derived exponents of the denominators.ConclusionS: Results of the present study do not support an association between feto-maternal vitamin D status and early infant WBBMC, raw or adjusted for inter-individual differences in size, in a multiethnic population in Northern California. © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved.