Maternal Perinatal Dietary Diversity and Immune Profiles of Neonates at Birth: From YI Cohort Study

High dietary diversity during pregnancy may improve maternal nutrition and modulate the fetal intrauterine environment. Using data from the prospective YI cohort, we evaluated associations between maternal perinatal dietary diversity and neonatal inflammation-related protein profiles at birth. A total of 40 term and 8 preterm mother–infant dyads were included. Maternal dietary diversity scores (DDS) were derived from a food frequency questionnaire using a modified MDD-W approach. Neonatal inflammation-related proteins were quantified in dried blood spots collected by heel prick using the Olink Target 96 Inflammation Panel. Compared with term infants, 56 inflammatory proteins were significantly downregulated in preterm infants (P < 0.05, FDR-adjusted P < 0.05), including chemokines (CCL4, CXCL9, CXCL10) and proinflammatory cytokines (IL-8, IL-18, IFN-γ). Exploratory analyses showed associations between higher maternal dietary diversity and lower CXCL1 levels in preterm infants and lower MMP-1 levels in term infants (P < 0.05), although neither association remained significant after correction for multiple testing. These exploratory findings inform hypotheses on maternal nutrition and infant immune development and require independent validation.