Author Correction: Analysis of sequential hair segments reflects changes in the metabolome across the trimesters of pregnancy.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Analysis of sequential hair segments reflects changes in the metabolome across the trimesters of pregnancy.

The hair metabolome has been recognized as a valuable source of information in pregnancy research, as it provides stable metabolite information that could assist with studying biomarkers or metabolic mechanisms of pregnancy and its complications. We tested the hypothesis that hair segments could be used to reflect a metabolite profile containing information from both endogenous and exogenous compounds accumulated during the nine months of pregnancy. Segments of hair samples corresponding to the trimesters were collected from 175 pregnant women in New Zealand. The hair samples were analysed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. In healthy pregnancies, 56 hair metabolites were significantly different between the first and second trimesters, while 62 metabolites were different between the first and third trimesters (p < 0.05). Additionally, three metabolites in the second trimester hair samples were significantly different between healthy controls and women who delivered small-for-gestational-age infants (p < 0.05), and ten metabolites in third trimester hair were significantly different between healthy controls and women with gestational diabetes mellitus (p < 0.01). The findings from this pilot study provide improved insight into the changes of the hair metabolome during pregnancy, as well as highlight the potential of the maternal hair metabolome to differentiate pregnancy complications from healthy pregnancies.

Metabolomics of Pregnancy Complications: Emerging Application of Maternal Hair.

In recent years, the study of metabolomics has begun to receive increasing international attention, especially as it pertains to medical research. This is due in part to the potential for discovery of new biomarkers in the metabolome and to a new understanding of the "exposome", which refers to the endogenous and exogenous compounds that reflect external exposures. Consequently, metabolomics research into pregnancy-related issues has increased. Biomarkers discovered through metabolomics may shed some light on the etiology of certain pregnancy-related complications and their adverse effects on future maternal health and infant development and improve current clinical management. The discoveries and methods used in these studies will be compiled and summarized within the following paper. A further focus of this paper is the use of hair as a biological sample, which is gaining increasing attention across diverse fields due to its noninvasive sampling method and the metabolome stability. Its significance in exposome studies will be considered in this review, as well as the potential to associate exposures with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Currently, hair has been used in only two metabolomics studies relating to fetal growth restriction (FGR) and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).