Maternal dietary inflammatory status and serum neopterin during
pregnancy: influence on infantile atopic eczema in the offspring
Abstract
A protective influence of maternal inflammatory status on infantile
atopic eczema risk has been proposed, but few studies have investigated
these potential links. We examined the associations between
energy-adjusted dietary inflammatory index (E-DII) scores indicative of
an inflammatory dietary pattern, maternal serum neopterin levels, a
biomarker elevated in Th1 immune activation, and infantile risk of
atopic eczema. Within the UK Southampton Women’s Survey, mothers’ diets
were recorded using questionnaires at preconception, early and late
pregnancy and E-DII scores derived. Atopic eczema was ascertained using
the UK Working Party Diagnostic Criteria at ages 6 and 12 months (n=2955
and 2871, respectively). A sub-sample of 497 mothers had serum neopterin
measured in late pregnancy. Unadjusted analyses showed that higher E-DII
in preconception and late pregnancy was associated with a lower risk of
eczema at ages 6 and 12 months. After adjusting for maternal BMI, age,
parity, education, smoking during pregnancy, breastfeeding duration and
sex, higher E-DII in late pregnancy was associated with reduced risks of
eczema at age 6 and 12 months (OR 0.89 [95%CI 0.81,0.99], p=0.03
and OR 0.91 [0.82,1.00], p=0.05, respectively). Consistent with
this, higher maternal serum neopterin was associated with a lower risk
of eczema at ages 6 months (OR 0.72 (0.51,1.01), p=0.05) and 12 months
(OR 0.71 (0.53,0.96), p=0.03). The findings suggest that a
pro-inflammatory maternal diet and an inflammatory maternal environment
during pregnancy may protect the developing infant from Th2 driven
inflammation and lower the risk of infantile atopic eczema.