Elvira Larqué's research while affiliated with University of Murcia and other places
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Publications (116)
Introduction:
Most of pregnant women do not achieve the recommended dietary intake of vitamins A and E. These vitamins may counteract oxidative stress involved in some adverse perinatal outcomes. We aimed to assess the associations between maternal vitamin A and E at mid-pregnancy with both maternal and fetal outcomes and to identify possible earl...
Introduction:
Low dietary intake of vitamin E is a global public health issue. RRR-α-tocopherol (RRR-αT) is the only naturally occurring vitamin E stereoisomer, but the equimolecular mixture of all eight stereoisomers, synthetic vitamin E (S-αT), is commonly consumed. The objective of this study was to evaluate bioavailability and antioxidant acti...
Purpose
Milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) has components with emulsifier properties that could affect the provision of substrates to the brain. We evaluated the effects of MFGM plus milk fat addition to infant formulas on docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) availability and gut development.
Methods
In Experiment 1, suckling piglets were divided into 3 group...
Background:
Immune signatures at birth could be associated with clinical outcomes and will improve our understanding of immunity prenatal programming.
Methods:
Data come from 235 newborns from the cohort study NELA. Production of cytokines was determined using Luminex technology. Associations between cytokine concentrations with sex and season o...
Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) set a public health risk through disruption of normal physiological processes. The toxicoepigenetic mechanisms of developmental exposure to common EDCs, such as bisphenol A (BPA), are poorly known. The present study aimed to evaluate associations between perinatal maternal urinary concentrations of BPA, bisphen...
The fetus depends on the transplacental transfer of vitamin D. Calcifediol (25-OH-D3) is the vitamin D metabolite that crosses the placenta. Previously, oral 25-OH-D3 improved serum 25-OH-D3 compared to vitamin D3 in non-pregnant subjects, although no studies are available in pregnant women. We evaluated the availability of oral 25-OH-D3 compared t...
Introduction:
Dietary exposure and drug treatments influence gut cellular pathways and hence growth and potentially even the gut-brain-microbiome axis. Since eukaryotic mRNA presents poly A sequence that distinguishes them from the prokaryotes mRNA, we could analyze the gene expression of human gut cells using exfoliated gut cells available in sto...
![FIGURE 1 | The relation (and 95% confidence levels [CIs]) of maternal...](profile/Eva-Morales/publication/359229500/figure/fig1/AS:1143966925881347@1649754377880/The-relation-and-95-confidence-levels-CIs-of-maternal-dietary-scores-in-pregnancy_Q320.jpg)
Background: Although adherence to Mediterranean and antioxidant-rich diets during pregnancy is suggested to improve maternal-fetal health by reducing oxidative stress, no study is available yet.
Objective: We examined whether maternal dietary patterns in pregnancy impact biomarkers of oxidative stress in mothers and their offspring.
Methods: Study...
Background:
Primary prevention strategies for asthma are lacking. Its inception probably starts in utero and/or during the early postnatal period as the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) paradigm suggests.
Objectives:
The main objective of Nutrition in Early Life and Asthma (NELA) cohort study is to unravel whether the followin...
Background:
Studies on childhood obesity mainly focus on the genetic component and on the lifestyle that may be associated with the development of obesity. However, the study of perinatal factors in their programming effect towards future obesity in children or adults is somewhat more recent and there are still mechanisms to be disentangled.
Summ...
Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs) are critical for infant growth and development, particularly arachidonic acid (ARA, C20:4n-6) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6n-3). ARA and DHA are components of cell membrane phospholipids and play an important role in cell division, differentiation, and signaling; and DHA is the n-3 fatty acid...
The prevalence of asthma is considerably high among women of childbearing age. Most asthmatic women also often have other atopic disorders. Therefore, the differentiation between patients with atopic diseases without asthma and asthmatics with coexisting diseases is essential to avoid underdiagnosis of asthma and to design strategies to reduce symp...
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) reduces maternal adiponectin and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) materno-fetal transfer, which may have negative consequences for the offspring. Our aim was to evaluate the effects of administration of a novel adiponectin agonist (AdipoRon) to GDM rats on the long-term consequences in glycaemia and fatty acids (FA) pr...
Background/aims:
Rise in global incidence of obesity impacts metabolic health. Evidence from human and animal models show association of vitamin B12 (B12) deficiency with elevated BMI and lipids. Human adipocytes demonstrated dysregulation of lipogenesis by low B12 via hypomethylation and altered microRNAs. It is known de novo hepatic lipogenesis...
Preconception and prenatal exposure to environmental contaminants may affect future health. Pregnancy and early life are critical sensitive windows of susceptibility. The aim of this review was to summarize current evidence on the toxic effects of environment exposure during pregnancy, the neonatal period, and childhood. Alcohol use is related to f...
Maternal supplementation of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) during pregnancy has been recommended due to its role in infant development, but its effect on materno-fetal DHA status is not well established. We evaluated the associations between DHA supplementation in pregnant women with obesity or gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and maternal and neona...
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation during pregnancy has been recommended by several health organizations due to its role in neural, visual, and cognitive development. There are several fat sources available on the market for the manufacture of these dietary supplements with DHA. These fat sources differ in the lipid structure in which DHA i...
Introduction
Placental function can be modified by maternal obesity affecting the materno-fetal fatty acid transport process. We analyze for the first time the in vivo materno-fetal kinetic transfer of fatty acids (FA) labeled with stable isotopes in control and obese pregnant women.
Materials and Methods
Labelled FA with similar metabolism (stear...
![FIGURE 1 | (A) Relative protein[[Inline Image]] level of MFSD2a in...](publication/339050847/figure/fig1/AS:855218984087558@1580911503851/A-Relative-proteinInline-Image-level-of-MFSD2a-in-maternal-blood-of-controls-GDM_Q320.jpg)
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a world-wide health challenge, which prevalence is expected to increase in parallel to the epidemic of obesity. Children born from GDM mothers have lower levels of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in cord blood, which might influence their neurodevelopment. Recently, the membrane transporter Major Family Super Domai...
Introduction
Childhood obesity epidemic is a worldwide public health problem, but recent studies show a stabilization trend.
Objective
To study the prevalence of overweight and obesity in school-age children from a Mediterranean area in Southeast Spain from 1992 to 2011.
Methods
Cross-sectional study at two-time points (1992 and 2011) of represen...
The protein Major Facilitator Superfamily Domain containing 2A (MFSD2a) was recently described as the primary carrier for docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) into the brain. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by lower DHA levels in blood lipids. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of MFSD2a...
Introduction:
Recent studies indicate that alkaline phosphatase (ALP) may affect expression and activity of fatty acid (FA) transport proteins in placenta and other tissues.
Objective:
To evaluate if disturbed FA profile in offspring of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) with different maternal pregestational weight could be related to maternal...
Key points:
Placental structure and function can be modified by maternal obesity affecting the materno-fetal fatty acid transport. We provide for the first time, in humans and in vivo, the kinetic of the placental fatty acid transfer in normo-weight and also in normolipemic obese pregnant women using stable isotopes. Administration of different tr...
Obesity among children and adolescents is highly pre valent in both developed and developing countries and is associated with several health complications, not only during childhood but also later in life. Substantial evi dence suggests that there is a considerable genetic con tribution to the development of excess adiposity during childhood, ra...
Maternal lifestyle during pregnancy, as well as early nutrition and the environment infants are raised in, are considered relevant factors for the prevention of childhood obesity. Several models are available for the prediction of childhood overweight and obesity, yet most have not been externally validated. Moreover, the factors considered in the...
Background & aims:
Maternal obesity at conception is considered a major predictor of offspring obesity. This could by driven at least in part by an altered placental fat transfer. However, the pathophysiological mechanisms involved are not fully understood. We investigated the in vivo materno-fetal transfer of fatty acids (FAs) in obese pregnant w...
Objective
The aim of this study was to analyse the differences in the phospholipid composition of very low density (VLDL), low density (LDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL) monolayers in pregnant lean and obese women.
Methods
LDL, HDL, and VLDL were isolated from plasma samples of 10 lean and 10 obese pregnant women, and their species compositi...
Introduction
The Developmental Origins of Health and Diseases (DOHaD) hypothesis states that both the pre- and postnatal environments shape health and disease later in life. Prenatal oxidative stress can have long term health consequences in the offspring through developmental programming, including an increased risk of adiposity; however studies i...
Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) have a deficiency of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in brain, which is important for cognitive function. However, little is known about its transfer across blood–brain barrier in adulthood. Recently, a new DHA carrier named Major Family Super domain 2a (MFSD2a) was reported to affect DHA transfer in the brain and...
Maternal obesity is associated with adverse outcomes. Placental lipid droplets (LD) have been implicated in maternal-fetal lipid transfer but it is not known whether placental LD fat composition is modifiable. We evaluated the effects of a diet and physical activity intervention in obese pregnant women compared to routine antenatal care (UPBEAT stu...
BACKGROUND:
To what extent does the circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) concentration help to meet the physiological needs of humans is an ongoing subject of debate. Remaining unexposed to the sun to reduce melanoma cancer risk, current lifestyle with less out door activities, and increasing obesity rates, which in turn increases the storage...
The great variety of n -3 long-chain PUFA sources raises the question of the most adequate for using as a DHA supplement during pregnancy. Placental and fetal availability of different DHA sources remains unclear. We investigated DHA availability in maternal lipoproteins, placenta and fetal tissues in pregnant sows fed DHA as phospholipid (PL) or T...
There is little information available on the effect of Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) treatment (diet or insulin) on placental lipid carriers, which may influence fetal fat accretion. Insulin may activate placental insulin receptors protein kinase (AKT) and extracellular signal regulated kinase ERK mediators, which might affect lipid metabolis...
Background:
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is associated with increased fetal adiposity, which may increase the risk of obesity in adulthood. The placenta has insulin receptors and maternal insulin can activate its signaling pathways, affecting the transport of nutrients to the fetus. However, the effects of diet or insulin treatment on the p...
Placental transfer of fatty acids can be evaluated by oral administration of fatty acids labeled with stable isotopes to pregnant women undergoing elective cesarean section. Nevertheless, it is difficult to identify a time for cesarean section at which the steady state of all 13C-fatty acids is reached because each lipid fraction has a different ki...
Prenatal docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supply is important to ensure an adequate infant neurodevelopment. Several fat supplements with DHA under different chemical structures are available. There is an increased placental phospholipase activity at the end of pregnancy. The hypothesis of this study was to discern whether DHA consumption during pregnanc...
In Gestational Diabetes Mellitus, glucose intolerance appears in pregnancy for the first time. This can cause several pathologies in the mother and her baby. Recently, a transmembrane protein, MFSD2a, was described as the preferential carrier of DHA as lysophospholipid through blood-brain barrier. MFSD2a is expressed in placenta as well and in GDM...
Introduction: The Nutrition in Early Life and Asthma (NELA) study was designed to unravel the prenatal and the early postnatal life course factors that predict children’s respiratory health. We postulate that the interface between early life and future respiratory health involves offspring immune system alterations, microbiome adaptations, epigenet...
Background & aims:
Maternal-fetal transfer of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is impaired by gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), but the underlying mechanisms are still unknown. MFSD2a was recently recognized as a lyso-phospholipid (lyso-PL) transporter that facilitates DHA accretion in brain. The role of this transporter in placenta is uncertain. We...
The conditions of biological samples collecting and its storage must be strictly controlled. Sample quality is essential for get reliable results in epidemiological researches. TissueSafe® system stores tissue in vacuum-package fastly and easily. It allows its conservation at 4 ºC until processing and final storage. Placenta is specially sensitive...
In circadian terms, human ontogeny is characterized by the emergence of a daily pattern, from a previous ultradian pattern, for most variables during the first 6 months of life. Circadian aging in humans is characterized by a phase advance, accompanied by rhythm fragmentation and flattening. Despite an expanding body of literature focused on distal...
The functionality of the placenta may affect neonatal adiposity and fetal levels of key nutrients such as long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. Fetal macrosomia and its complications may occur even in adequately controlled gestational diabetic (GDM) mothers, suggesting that maternal glycemia is not the only determinant of fetal glycemic status an...
We describe a method to isolate lipids droplets (LD) from human placental tissue for future lipid analyses. We collected placentas at term from healthy women (n=5) and tested three methods published for LD isolation in other tissues. Only with the modified method of Zhang et al. (2011) we isolated LD from placental tissue, while the three methods a...
Background/objective:
To evaluate the relation between docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) status and neurodevelopment in the offsprings of gestational diabetic mothers (ODMs).
Subjects/methods:
A prospective cohort study was performed. The offspring of 63 pregnant women (23 controls, 21 diet-controlled gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and 19 insulin-...
Offspring of obese and diabetic mothers are at increased risk of being born with excess adiposity as a consequence of their intrauterine environment. Excessive fetal fat accretion reflects additional placental nutrient transfer, suggesting an effect of the maternal environment on placental function. High plasma levels of particular nutrients in obe...
Objective:
To analyse the circadian rhythm maturation of temperature, activity and sleep during the first year of life in offspring of diabetic mothers (ODM) and its relationship with obesity markers.
Methods:
A prospective analysis of the children of 63 pregnant women (23 controls, 21 gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) controlled with diet and...
Better knowledge on the disturbed mechanisms implicated in materno-fetal long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LC-PUFA) transfer in pregnancies with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) may have potential high implications for later on in effective LC-PUFA supplementation. We studied in vivo placental transfer of fatty acids (FA) using stable isoto...
Purpose of review:
Placental nutrient uptake and transfer may have a unique role, as changes in trophoblast nutrient-sensing signaling pathways regulate cell metabolism and may affect the fetal growth and health programming in the offspring.
Recent findings:
The functionality of the placenta could affect the neonatal adiposity and the fetal leve...
Maternal milk is the first source of exogenous polyamines for the newborn. Polyamines modulate gut maturation in neonates, but no studies are available on polyamine concentration in human milk of preterm babies, even though they could be important for their immature gut. The present study aimed to determine polyamine concentration in human breast m...
Pregnancy is associated with a reduction in maternal serum docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6 n-3) percentage and its possible depletion in the maternal store. Since the synthesis of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) in the fetus and placenta is low, both the maternal LCPUFA status and placental function are critical for their supply to...
The amount and activity of placental enzymes, receptors, and transport proteins will determine the extent of lipid transfer to the fetus that strongly contributes to fetal fat accretion.
Several studies have shown an association between the percentage of maternal plasma docosahexaenoic acid during gestation and the development of cognitive function...
Presently, there is no clear consensus on the best approach to estimate carotenoid bioavailability. The best alternative would be to use human studies, but they are labour-intensive and expensive and can only be used to investigate a lim-ited number of samples. Hence, a number of in vitro models have been developed to study pre-absorptive processes...
The effect of daily intakes of two differently processed fruit and vegetable soups on β-carotene and lycopene bioavailability, oxidative stress and cardiovascular risk biomarkers was investigated. An optimised soup produced using heat treatments and high pressure homogenisation for high nutrient retention, and a traditionally produced reference sou...
a b s t r a c t Ten subjects consumed one serving of an optimised or a reference soup produced using modified or tra-ditional processing methods, respectively. Both soups contained the same proportions of carrot, tomato and broccoli, but with 5% olive oil in the optimised soup and 2.5% in the reference soup. The b-carotene content in 600 mL of the...
During traditional industrial processing of fruit and vegetable derived foods, consideration of the eventual retention, bio-accessibility or bio-availability of nutrients has hitherto been a secondary priority. Indeed standard processing of soups and sauces involves treating all ingredients in a similar way, usually by prolonged heat treatment and...
The concentration of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCPUFA) in the fetal brain increases dramatically from the third trimester until 18 months of life. Several studies have shown an association between the percentage of maternal plasma docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) during gestation and development of cognitive functions in the neonate. Since o...
DHEA-S treatment is used as an anti-aging and anti-obesity hormone therapy in adults; however, it mechanisms of action are not clearly elucidated. The objective of the present work was to analyze the effect of a replacement therapy, which included a daily single oral dose of DHEA-S for three months, on the composition of human plasma fatty acids (F...
To evaluate the effect of the daily intake of a fruit & vegetable soup with high in vitro bioaccessibility of carotenoids on β-carotene and lycopene serum concentrations.
Fourteen healthy young men (24 ± 1 years) received 300 mL/day of a carrot, tomato, and broccoli soup, containing 3.9 mg β-carotene and 4 mg lycopene, for 4 weeks followed by a 4-w...
Considerable amounts of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs), particularly arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3), are deposited in fetal tissues during pregnancy; and this process is facilitated by placental delivery. Nevertheless, the mechanisms involved in LC-PUFA placental transfer remain unclear. Stable isotope t...
Polyamines are molecules involved in cell growth and differentiation and are produced by bacterial metabolism. However, their production and effects by the microbiota selected by fructooligosaccharides consumption are controversial. In this study, we investigated the influence of supplementation of fructooligosaccharides on the cecal polyamine prod...
The authors developed a method useful for home measurement of temperature, activity, and sleep rhythms in infants under normal-living conditions during their first 6 mos of life. In addition, parametric and nonparametric tests for assessing circadian system maturation in these infants were compared. Anthropometric parameters plus ankle skin tempera...
We investigated the antinutritional effect of white tea extract (0, 15, and 45 mg of the tea solid extract per kilogram body weight) incorporated in the drinking water of rats for 3 and 30 days. Gender-based differences were found for all these variables, except apparent protein digestibility and the apparent absorption of calcium, phosphorus, and...
Dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S) has been described as a protector agent against obesity-related pathologies, although the mechanism of action is still unknown. We have shown that DHEA-S acts on adipose tissue (AT), altering the fatty acid (FA) profile in rodents. Thus, we could hypothesize that some of the beneficial effects shown by DHEA-S...
We developed a new method to evaluate the antioxidant effect of food products in a biological system. The antioxidant status of HepG2 cells was quantified after incubation with postprandial human chylomicrons after the intake of vegetable products. Three subjects consumed in a meal a vegetable soup containing 8.4 mg of β-carotene and 9 mg of lycope...
The association between premature pubarche (PP) and metabolic syndrome is controversial and not supported by some authors. The aim of this study was to determine insulin resistance syndrome, plasma adiponectin, and fatty acid profile in PP girls to discern potential confounder variables and markers of metabolic disturbances. We studied 22 prepubert...
The biological effects of oxidized LDL (oxLDL) may contribute to initiation and progression of the atherosclerotic process, and the association between cardiovascular disease and oxidation of LDL has been largely demonstrated. The objectives of this study were to establish the reference values of oxidative stress biomarkers in a young healthy Spani...
