Concentrations of Antioxidant Vitamins in Maternal and Cord Serum and Their Effect on Birth Outcomes

BACKGROUND: Emerging evidence indicates that maternal oxidative stress during pregnancy could impair fetal growth and that antioxidant vitamins (e.g. vitamins A, E and C) have a significant role in maintaining physiological processes of pregnancy and growth. AIMS: To determine the concentrations of vitamins A, E, and C in pair-matched maternal and cord serum samples of neonate, and thus to investigate the relationship between maternal serum levels of these vitamins at delivery and birth outcomes. METHODS: A total of 143 mother-neonate pairs were recruited into the cross-sectional descriptive study. Demographic information was investigated by questionnaire. After delivery, both cord and maternal blood were collected for quantification of serum levels of vitamins A, E and C by HPLC. RESULTS: Maternal serum levels of vitamins A and E were significantly higher than those in cord serum. In contrast, vitamin C level in cord serum was significantly higher than that in maternal serum. Further, we found that maternal vitamin A status was significantly correlated to both birth weight (r=0.19, p=0.0419) and birth height (r=0.21, p=0.0311), and these were manifested by these findings: (i) per 250.2 g reduction in birth weight concomitant with 1 micromol/L increase in maternal serum vitamin A level (p<0.01; 95% CI: 56.9-451.5); and (ii) per 1% increase in the ratio of serum vitamin A level of neonate to mother concomitant with 0.8 cm increase in birth height (p=0.049; 95% CI: 0.004-1.639). CONCLUSION: Maternal vitamin A, but not vitamins E and C, during pregnancy had a significant effect on birth outcomes. Further studies are necessary to investigate the role of these antioxidant vitamins in fetal growth at various gestation stages.