Premature birth did not have a pronounced impact on eating behaviour of four-year-old children, but some effects were observed in girls.

AIM: Feeding of preterm-born children has been extensively studied during infancy. Few studies have focused on later life but the available data indicate that feeding problems may persist after infancy. We studied this topic using two cohorts of full-term and preterm-born children. METHODS: The Children's Eating Difficulties Questionnaire was used to assess the appetite, food enjoyment, pickiness and neophobia, the fear of new foods, of 347 four-year-old children born in 2009-2011. Of these, 179 (52% boys) were born preterm at 24 to 36 weeks and recruited from paediatric clinics in southeast Sweden. The 168 children (54% boys) born full-term were recruited from a maternity health clinic in the same region. The parents graded 12 statements about their child's eating behaviour from very false to very true. RESULTS: A low gestational age at birth was associated with less reported appetite in girls. Estimates describing appetite and food enjoyment correlated with gestational age at birth in girls but not in boys. This difference between boys and girls was significant (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Prematurity had no major effects on food-related behaviour in four-year-old children. However, some estimates of reduced appetite and food enjoyment were associated with lower gestational age at birth in girls but not in boys.

Premature birth was not associated with increased body fatness in four-year-old boys and girls.

AIM: Premature birth is a worldwide problem and increases the risk of chronic disease later in life. Prematurely born infants may have a high percentage of body fat at term-equivalent age, but it is unclear if this characteristic is maintained in childhood. Therefore, we compared the size and body composition of four-year-old prematurely born children to such values of full-term controls. METHODS: Between 2013 and 2015, we assessed weight, height, fat mass and fat-free mass, using air displacement plethysmography in 188 reasonably healthy prematurely born four-year-olds (98 boys). RESULTS: At four years of age, prematurely born children (gestational weeks at birth: 23.3-36.9) tended to be lighter and shorter and to contain less fat mass and fat-free mass than did full-term controls. The gestational age at birth of the prematurely born children correlated positively and significantly (P < .05) with height, weight, body mass index, fat mass (kg, %), fat mass index and fat-free mass (kg) in girls but not in boys. CONCLUSION: Prematurity was not associated with increased body fatness in our four-year-olds. Our findings are relevant in relation to previously published results showing that premature birth is associated with chronic disease later in life.

Human sperm displays rapid responses to diet.

The global rise in obesity and steady decline in sperm quality are two alarming trends that have emerged during recent decades. In parallel, evidence from model organisms shows that paternal diet can affect offspring metabolic health in a process involving sperm tRNA-derived small RNA (tsRNA). Here, we report that human sperm are acutely sensitive to nutrient flux, both in terms of sperm motility and changes in sperm tsRNA. Over the course of a 2-week diet intervention, in which we first introduced a healthy diet followed by a diet rich in sugar, sperm motility increased and stabilized at high levels. Small RNA-seq on repeatedly sampled sperm from the same individuals revealed that tsRNAs were up-regulated by eating a high-sugar diet for just 1 week. Unsupervised clustering identified two independent pathways for the biogenesis of these tsRNAs: one involving a novel class of fragments with specific cleavage in the T-loop of mature nuclear tRNAs and the other exclusively involving mitochondrial tsRNAs. Mitochondrial involvement was further supported by a similar up-regulation of mitochondrial rRNA-derived small RNA (rsRNA). Notably, the changes in sugar-sensitive tsRNA were positively associated with simultaneous changes in sperm motility and negatively associated with obesity in an independent clinical cohort. This rapid response to a dietary intervention on tsRNA in human sperm is attuned with the paternal intergenerational metabolic responses found in model organisms. More importantly, our findings suggest shared diet-sensitive mechanisms between sperm motility and the biogenesis of tsRNA, which provide novel insights about the interplay between nutrition and male reproductive health.

Studies on human body composition during the first 4 months of life using magnetic resonance imaging and isotope dilution.

Assessing body composition during infancy requires data for the so-called reference infant. Currently available data for this purpose need to be updated and extended using methods based on principles different from those used previously to define the reference infant. Thus, magnetic resonance imaging was applied to full-term healthy boys (n = 25) and girls (n = 21), 4-131 d old, to estimate adipose tissue volume (ATV) and the amounts of s.c. and non-s.c. adipose tissue (AT). Total body water was estimated using isotope dilution. Total body fat (TBF), fat free weight (FFW) and the degree of hydration in FFW were calculated. Increases in weight, TBF, and FFW with age agreed with current reference data, although when compared with the reference, a slightly more rapid increase in % TBF was observed for boys. The degree of hydration in FFW was 78.9 +/- 4.5% (n = 45). Both sexes showed significant increases with age in s.c. ATV (14.7 and 13.0 mL/d for boys and girls, respectively) and in non-s.c. ATV (1.58 and 1.26 mL/d, respectively). Subcutaneous ATV was 90.5 +/- 1.8% (boys) and 91.1 +/- 1.9% (girls) of total ATV. In conclusion, a pronounced increase with age in the amount of AT was demonstrated involving a considerable gain in s.c. fat during early life. Except for % TBF in boys, changes in body composition with age agreed with current reference data.