(PTFS09-01-24) Associations of Maternal Dietary Inflammation Potential and Body Mass Index with C-Reactive Protein Levels in Human Milk

Sunday, June 30, 2024

2:00 PM – 2:04 PM CT

Location: Hall F1 (The Hub) - Poster Theater

Presenting Author(s)

Hatice Cetinkaya, MS

PhD Student
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Co-Author(s)

SS

Suzanne S. Summer, PhD, RD

Manager of Operations at Schubert Research Clinic
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
NO

Nicholas J. Ollberding, PhD

Associate Professor
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
NM

Nathan Meredith

Reckitt/Mead Johnson Nutrition Institute, United States
SM

Sarah Maria

Reckitt Mead Johnson
Evansville, Indiana, United States
AM

Ardythe L. Morrow, PhD

Professor
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
LN

Laurie A. Nommsen-Rivers, PhD, RD

Associate Professor of Nutrition
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

Objectives: Maternal diet and prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) are known to alter some nutrients in milk, but little is known regarding their associations with levels of inflammatory biomarkers in human milk. We evaluated if maternal diet quality and prepregnancy BMI predict concentrations of C-Reactive Protein (CRP) in human milk in a Midwestern U.S. setting.

Methods: We used Cincinnati Global Exploration of Human Milk (GEHM) data, a prospective cohort of healthy mother/infant dyads. Three 24-hour dietary recalls collected from mothers between 4-13 weeks postpartum were used to compute a Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), in which a higher score indicates a more proinflammatory diet. Participants (n= 99) were categorized into low and high DII groups at the median and BMI groups defined as healthy ( < 25 kg/m²) or unhealthy (≥25 kg/m²). CRP was measured in week 4 milk samples with a previously validated high-sensitivity ELISA kit. We examined DII and BMI both continuously and categorically by the 4 combinations of DII x BMI group, using non-parametric linear regression and the Kruskal Wallis test followed by post-hoc comparison, respectively.

Results: Median [Q1–Q3] values were as follows: Maternal age, 31.3 [28.8 – 35.5] years; DII, 0.09 [-1.6 – 1.2]; BMI, 25.3 [22.7 – 30.6] kg/m²; and milk CRP, 101.9 [54.8 – 173.6] ng/mL. Greater BMI was associated with higher milk CRP (β:4.4, p= 0.0006), while higher DII did not significantly predict higher milk CRP (β:0.97, p= 0.8). There was no significant difference in maternal age, education, or ethnicity across the four DII x BMI groups, but milk CRP was significantly different (p= 0.009). In post-hoc analysis, women with low DII/healthy BMI had the lowest CRP (n= 30, 64.3 [38.2 – 121.4] ng/mL) compared to the other three groups combined (n= 69, 124.1 [71.2 – 181] ng/mL, p= 0.019). CRP levels for those with low DII/unhealthy BMI (n= 20), high DII/healthy BMI (n= 17), high DII/unhealthy BMI (n= 32) were 152.4 [96.4 – 205.9], 110.4 [82.5 – 163.2], and 107.7 [54.3 – 186.1] ng/mL, respectively.

Conclusions: BMI is a significant predictor of milk CRP, and CRP concentrations were lowest in women with both a higher quality diet and healthy BMI.

Funding Sources: UC URC funded HC in Summer 2022 and Reckitt funded GEHM milk and data collection. NICHD support for authors from 1R01HD109915.