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Topical Area: Climate, Food Systems, Diet, Nutrition and Health

Climate, Food Systems, Diet, Nutrition and Health (Poster Session)

(P02-030-23) Plasma Phospholipid Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Early Pregnancy and Thyroid Function Throughout Pregnancy: A Longitudinal Study

Saturday, July 22, 2023

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET

Location: Poster Board 373

Presenting Author(s)

LL

Ling-Jun Li, MD, PhD (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor
Global Centre for Asian Women's Health, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Singapore, Singapore

Co-Author(s)

AB

Anna Birukov

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
RL

Ruijin Lu

Washington University in St. Louis
NW

Natalie L. Weir, MS

Tsai Laboratory Manager
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
ZC

Zhen Chen, PhD

NIH
BETHESDA, Maryland, United States
Shristi Rawal, PhD (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor
Rutgers University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
MT

Michael Y. Tsai, PhD, MS

University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
CZ

Cuilin Zhang, MD PhD

National University of Singapore

Disclosure(s):

Ling-Jun Li, MD, PhD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Shristi Rawal, PhD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Objectives: Thyroid hormones are important for normal brain development and growth of the fetus during pregnancy. Emerging research has shown a diet rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) is protective against thyroid abnormalities. We investigated the relationship between PUFAs in early pregnancy and thyroid function across pregnancy.

Methods: Within the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies–Singleton Cohort, we collected plasma samples longitudinally from 214 women with a singleton pregnancy. We measured 10 PUFAs at early pregnancy (10-14 weeks) and 5 thyroid biomarkers at 10–14, 15–26, 23–31, and 33–39 weeks, including free thyroxine (fT4), free triiodothyronine (fT3), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), and antibodies of thyroid peroxidase (TPO-Ab) and thyroglobulin (TG-Ab). We studied the associations between early pregnancy PUFAs after natural log transformation (Ln) and thyroid biomarkers measured at each visit using linear regression and across all research visits using a linear mixed model, after adjusting for major confounders like pre-pregnancy body mass index.

Results: For n-3 PUFAs, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5n3) was inversely associated with fT3 and anti-TG whereas docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n3) was positively associated with fT4 yet inversely associated with TSH at each visit. For n-6 PUFAs, gamma-linolenic acid (GLA; 18:3n6), dihomo-gamma-linolenic acid (DGLA; 20:3n6) and n-6 DPA (22:5n6) were inversely associated with anti-TG at each visits. In linear mixed model, each unit increase in Ln-DHA was associated with an average increment of 0.09 pg/ml (95% CI: 0, 0.18) in fT4. Each unit increase in Ln-EPA and Ln-arachidonic acid (AA; 20:4n6) was associated with average reductions of 0.30 pg/ml (-0.52, -0.07) and 0.78 pg/ml (-1.32, -0.24) in fT3, respectively.

Conclusions: Our results suggest early pregnancy plasma PUFAs might optimally modulating subsequent thyroid function and autoimmunity status across pregnancy.

Funding Sources: NICHD intramural funding