Moderate Freshwater Fish Intake, but Not n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids, Is Associated with a Reduced Risk of Small for Gestational Age in a Prospective Cohort of Chinese Pregnant Women.

BACKGROUND: Although previous studies have found that maternal fish intake is associated with fetal growth, the role of freshwater fish intake remains unknown. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to examine the relationships of freshwater fish and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) intake with the risk of small for gestational age (SGA) in Chinese pregnant women. DESIGN: This was a prospective analysis of data from the Tongji Birth cohort in Wuhan, China, from 2018 to 2021. PARTICIPANTS/SETTINGS: This study included 1,701 pregnant women who had completed a food frequency questionnaire dietary assessment during mid-pregnancy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Intake of fish was assessed by a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Total intake of n-3 PUFAs was the sum of data collected from both dietary and supplemental sources of n-3 PUFAs. Birth information was extracted from medical records. STATISTICAL ANALYSES: Multivariate logistic regression models were applied to estimate odds ratios and 95% CIs. RESULTS: The median (interquartile range) intake of freshwater fish and total n-3 PUFAs was 12.1 (4.3 to 26.4) g/d and 68.2 (24.5 to 370.0) mg/d, respectively. Moderate intake of freshwater fish was associated with reduced risk of SGA. Compared with the lowest quintile (0-3.2 g/d), the multivariable-adjusted odds ratio for women in the fourth quintile of freshwater fish intake (17.9 to 30.0 g/d) was 0.50 (95% CI 0.25 to 0.96). We found a nonlinear association between freshwater fish intake and SGA risk (Pnonlinearity = .027). However, maternal n-3 PUFAs intake was not significantly associated with SGA risk, either from total intake or from dietary sources alone. CONCLUSIONS: Moderate freshwater fish intake during pregnancy is associated with lower risk of SGA in a Chinese population. This finding provides supportive evidence for freshwater fish intake during pregnancy, particularly for the inland areas of developing countries.

Lutein attenuates excessive lipid accumulation in differentiated 3T3-L1 cells and abdominal adipose tissue of rats by the SIRT1-mediated pathway.

OBJECTIVE: Obesity is now a worldwide disease and is mainly attributable to increased body fat deposition. In a growing number of epidemiological studies, lutein has been revealed to have different degrees of anti-obesity properties, but the potential underlying mechanisms that have been reported are limited. Therefore, we aimed to clarify the protective effects of lutein against excessive lipid accumulation, and we explored the role of SIRT1 and SIRT1-mediated pathways both in abdominal adipose tissue and mature 3T3-L1 cells during lutein administration. METHODS: In our design, male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed either control or high-fat diets with or without 25 mg/kg·bw/day lutein for 5 weeks. Additionally, differentiated 3T3-L1 cells were incubated with 40 µM lutein or 10 µM Ex527 for 24 h. RESULTS: Lutein supplementation decreased the body weight, abdominal fat index ratio, frequency and mean area of larger adipocytes in HE staining induced by the high-fat diet and then activated the expression of SIRT1 and thus upregulated FoxO1, ATGL, and HSL expression and downregulated SREBP-1, FAS, and ACC expression both in abdominal adipose tissue and differentiated 3T3-L1 cells. However, coincubation with Ex527 and lutein suppressed the activation of SIRT1 and reversed the expression of FoxO1, ATGL, HSL, SREBP-1, FAS, and ACC in comparison to those in the Lut group. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, we suggest that the effects of lutein on attenuating excessive lipid accumulation are dependent on the SIRT1-mediated pathway in vivo and in vitro, which indicates that lutein administration may be a potential strategy for preventing excessive lipid accumulation and obesity.