Maternal inflammatory and omega-3 fatty acid pathways mediate the association between socioeconomic disadvantage and childhood cognition

•Maternal inflammatory omega-3 fatty acid markers were associated with child cognition.•Maternal metabolites mediated association between child cognition and risk factors.•Results may inform new targets for intervention to improve child cognition. Poor cognitive outcomes in early childhood predict p...

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Published in:Brain, behavior, and immunity behavior, and immunity, 2022-02, Vol.100, p.211-218
Main Authors: Marx, Wolfgang, Thomson, Sarah, O'Hely, Martin, Symeonides, Christos, Collier, Fiona, Tang, Mimi L.K., Loughman, Amy, Burgner, David, Saffery, Richard, Pham, Cindy, Mansell, Toby, Sly, Peter D., Vuillermin, Peter, Ranganathan, Sarath, Ponsonby, Anne-Louise
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child, Preschool
Cognition
Fatty Acids, Omega-3
Female
Glyca
Humans
Inflammation
Maternal
Mediation
Metabolomics
Mothers
Neurodevelopment
NMR
Pregnancy
Socioeconomic disadvantage
Socioeconomic Factors
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Summary:•Maternal inflammatory omega-3 fatty acid markers were associated with child cognition.•Maternal metabolites mediated association between child cognition and risk factors.•Results may inform new targets for intervention to improve child cognition. Poor cognitive outcomes in early childhood predict poor educational outcomes and diminished health over the life course. We sought to investigate (i) whether maternal metabolites predict child cognition, and (ii) if maternal metabolomic profile mediates the relationship between environmental exposures and child cognition. Metabolites were measured using nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomics in pregnant women from a population-derived birth cohort. Child cognition was measured at age 2 years. In 662 mother–child pairs, elevated inflammatory markers (β = −2.62; 95% CI −4.10, −1.15; P = 0.0005) and lower omega-3 fatty acid-related metabolites (β = 0.49; 95% CI 0.09, 0.88; P = 0.02) in the mother were associated with lower child cognition and partially mediated the association between lower child cognition and multiple risk factors common to socioeconomic disadvantage. Modifying maternal prenatal metabolic pathways related to inflammation and omega-3 fatty acids may offset the adverse associations between prenatal risk factors related to socioeconomic disadvantage and low child cognition.
ISSN:0889-1591
1090-2139
DOI:10.1016/j.bbi.2021.12.002