A pregnant woman's ability to metabolize fats is determined not only by her genes, but by her baby's genes as well, say researchers in Belgium. The study, published in the Journal of Lipid Research , examined the genes and proteins involved in fat metabolism from the blood and placenta of over 500 pregnant women. Study leader Olivier S. Descamps and his co-researchers discovered that the baby's genes had almost as much influence as the mother's genes on her lipoprotein levels. Increased levels of lipoproteins can lead to preeclampsia in pregnant women and also increase their future risk of cardiovascular disease.
The study focused on two specific proteins involved in lipid metabolism, lipoprotein lipase and apolipoprotein E. "Apolipoprotein E and lipoprotein lipase play important roles in the degradation of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins," explained Descamps. "In pregnant women, the concentrations of these lipoproteins are particularly very high and it is thought that these lipoproteins are the forms that carry the lipids to the placenta."
The researchers looked at several genetic variations of lipoprotein lipase and apolipoprotein E that are known to influence the concentrations of triglycerides and cholesterol in the general population. They found that when these variations were present in the babies, their mothers' triglyceride and cholesterol levels were influenced to the same extent that they would be if the variations were present in the mothers. Interestingly, when both the mother and fetus expressed the same variation, the results were not be predicted. A genetic variation that raises the levels of triglycerides and cholesterol when expressed in mothers, for example, may lower these levels when it is expressed simultaneously by the fetus in the placenta.
These findings are important for women who may have been advised not to have children due to genetic defects in lipoprotein metabolism. Because their fetuses can compensate for their defects, the women may actually be able to bear children without complications, concluded the researchers.
Source: American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
