Abstract
The concentration of micronutrients impacts fetal development and pregnancy outcome and has been suggested to be negatively correlated with the body-mass index (BMI). We evaluated the relationship between BMI and the serum folate concentration in 802 and 660 Korean pregnant women in mid- and late pregnancy, respectively, who participated in a multicenter prospective study. There was a significant negative correlation between BMI value and the serum folate concentration at mid- and late pregnancy (P for trend 0.001 and 0.024, respectively). A general linear model confirmed this correlation at both time points after adjusting for gestational age and total folate intake. These findings are important as the serum folate concentration is a rate-limiting factor for placental folate transport to the fetus, and an inadequate folate supply may cause various malformations.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Mothers and Children's Environmental Health (MOCEH) Project of the Ministry of Environment, and the 2nd stage of Brain Korea 21 project, Republic of Korea. The visiting research professorship (Tsunenobu Tamura) was supported by the Korea Research Foundation and the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies Grant funded by the Korea Government (MOEHRD, Basic Research Promotion Fund; 091S-4-3-0222).
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Contributors: TT and NC designed the research; HK, E-HH, HP, MH, K-YL, and Y-CH conducted the research; HK analyzed the data; HK, J-YH, K-NK, TT and NC wrote the manuscript; and NC was primarily responsible for the final content. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Kim, H., Hwang, JY., Kim, KN. et al. Relationship between body-mass index and serum folate concentrations in pregnant women. Eur J Clin Nutr 66, 136–138 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2011.160
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2011.160
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