Study participants and data collection
This was a secondary analysis conducted on data from the ROLO study. The ROLO study (Randomised cOntrol trial of LOw glycaemic index diet versus no dietary intervention to prevent recurrence of foetal macrosomia, 2007–2011, Dublin, Ireland) tested the hypothesis of a low-GI diet in pregnant women to reduce birth weight in secundigravida with a previous macrosomic child (birth weight > 4000 g); the intervention group (n = 394) received an educational session about low-GI diet at the beginning of the second trimester, while the standard group (n = 406) received standard care only (trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN54392969) [46].
Recruitment and the first study visit took place at the end of the first pregnancy trimester (median: 13th gestation week) and rapidly followed by the educational session (median: 15th week); additional visits were held at 28th and 34th weeks of gestation.
Maternal age at delivery, early pregnancy weight and BMI, weight at 34th week, gestational age at delivery, newborn’s sex, weight and length were documented. Gestational weight gain (GWG) was defined as weight at last measured visit (38th or 40th gestational week) after subtraction of early pregnancy weight; for cases with missing weight at 38th or 40th week, GWG was imputed by adding the overall ROLO median GWG between 34th and 38th week to the weight measured at 34th week. Newborn’s ponderal index at birth was calculated as 100 ∙ birth weight (g) / birth length3 (cm3).
Maternal fasting blood samples were collected at recruitment and again at the 28th week. Cord blood was collected at delivery. Total, HDL and LDL cholesterol were measured via Roche cholesterol oxidase method and direct HDL Roche 3rd generation method, respectively, on the cobas C702 module of the Roche Cobas 8000 analyser (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Penzberg, Germany); the Friedewald equation was used to estimate LDL-cholesterol concentrations [7].
Three-days food diaries were collected in each pregnancy trimester and evaluated by a research dietitian via WISP software version 3.0 (Tinuviel Software, Llanfechell, UK) [32]. From these data, the absolute GI intake and the proportion of energy derived from saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat intake, expressed as percentage of total energy intake (% kcal), were derived.
Metabolomics measurements
For subgroups of evaluable mother/child pairs, aliquots of the collected samples were provided for metabolomics analysis. Plasma samples were measured in a targeted approach using liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS-MS) in the laboratory of the Division of Metabolic and Nutritional Medicine, Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital (LMU Munich). Five classes of metabolites were analysed: amino acids (AA), non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), acylcarnitines (AC), branched chain keto acids (BCKA) and intermediates of TCA cycle (TCA), and phospholipids (PL) (including sphingomyelins (SM), diacyl-phosphatidylcholines (PCaa), acyl-alkyl-phosphatidylcholines (PCae) and lysophosphatidylcholines (LPC)). After preparation, samples were randomly distributed in 4 96-wells batches with maternal blood (1–4) and 3 batches with cord blood (5–7). In each batch, up to 80 test samples were measured together with 6 quality control (QC) samples (prepared as pooled mixture of the samples from batch 1, for maternal blood, or from batch 5, for cord blood) and 10 standards used for quantification. The injection of the samples was randomized in each run, with QC and standards being injected regularly every 6–7 test samples. Measurements and QC were performed separately for each blood source.
Samples preparation
Proteins of 50 μL plasma were precipitated on a plate with PTFE filter elements by adding 450 μL methanol including internal standards (ISD). After centrifugation the filtrate was split into aliquots for the analyses of individual methods.
Amino acids
Fifty μL of the filtrate was used for the derivatization to AA butyl ester with hydrochloric acid in 1-butanol according to the method described by Harder et al. [15]. A set of labeled amino acid standards (set A, Cambridge Isotope Laboratories) mixed with L-Asparagine (15 N2, 98%, Cambridge Isotope Laboratories) and L-Tryptophan (Indole-D5, 98%, Cambridge Isotope Laboratories) was used as internal standard (ISD). After evaporation, the residues were dissolved in water/methanol (80:20) with 0.1% formic acid and determined by LC-MS/MS equipped with 150 × 2.1 mm, 3.5 μm particle size C18 HPLC column (X-Bridge, Waters, Milford, USA) and 0.1% heptafluorobutyric acid as ion pair reagent in mobile phase A (water) and B (methanol). MS detection was performed with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (API2000, Sciex, Darmstadt, Germany) with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization source (APCI) operating in positive ion ionization mode.
NEFA
Fifty μL of the filtrate was diluted with100 μL methanol and injected to a LC-MS/MS operating in negative electrospray ionization (ESI) mode for identification of NEFA as described by Hellmuth et al. [16]. Uniformly 13C-labeled palmitic acid was used as ISD. Samples were injected to an HPLC system (1200, Agilent, Waldbronn, Germany) with a UPLC diphenyl column (Pursuit UPS Diphenyl, Agilent, Waldbronn, Germany). Five mM ammonium acetate and 2.1 mM acetic acid in water were used as mobile phase A and acetonitrile/isopropanol (80/20) as mobile phase B. A hybrid triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (4000 QTRAP, Sciex, Darmstadt, Germany) operating in negative ESI multiple reaction monitoring mode (MRM) mode was used for MS detection. This method allows for the separation of NEFA species differing in chain length and number of double bonds, but not in the position of double bonds. The analytical process was post-processed using Analyst software version 1.6.2.
BCKA and TCA
Organic and keto-acids were measured by a modified method based on previously published procedures [4, 30]. D3-methylmalonic acid (Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Teweeksbury, MA, USA) was used as ISD. One hundred μL of the supernatant were evaporated to dryness and re-suspended in 50 μL water. Five μL of the extracted samples were injected by HPLC system (1200, Agilent, Waldbronn, Germany) on a Kinetex F5 core-shell HPLC column, 150 × 2.1 mm, 2.6 μm particle size (Kinetex F5, Phenomenex, Aschaffenburg, Germany) for chromatographic separation of molecular species. The mobile phase A was water with 1% formic acid and mobile phase B was composed of methanol/isopropanol (50/50) with 1% formic acid. A gradient elution at a flow rate of 250 μL/min was held constant for 1 min with 1% B, raised to 65% B within 6 min, and turned back to initial conditions of 1%B within 0.5 min. The triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (4000QTRAP, Sciex, Darmstadt, Germany) was operated in negative scheduled MRM mode using ESI.
Phospholipids
Phospholipids were analyzed as described by Uhl et al. [45] using LPC (13:0) and PC (14:0/14:0) (Avanti Polar Lipids, Alabaster, Alabama, USA) as ISD. Thirty μL of the centrifuged supernatant were mixed for 20 min at 600 rpm with 500 μl methanol containing 1.2 mM ammonium acetate. Phospholipids were analyzed by flow-injection analysis (FIA) in a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (QTRAP4000, Sciex, Darmstadt, Germany) coupled to a LC system (1200 Agilent, Waldbronn, Germany). ESI was used in positive ionization mode. MS/MS analysis was run in positive MRM mode with 184 Da (choline head group) as product ion for the PL. Analyst 1.6.2 software, followed by in-house processing with the statistical software R [44], was used for post-processing. The number of carbon atoms (XX) and double bonds (Y) is expressed in the form C XX:Y.
Acylcarnitines
D3-carnitine-C2, D3-carnitine-C8 and D3-carnitine-C16 (all Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Teweeksbury, MA, USA) were used as ISDs. FIA with isocratic elution with 76% isopropanol, 19% methanol and 5% water was used to measure acylcarnitines. The mass spectrometer (4000 QTRAP, Sciex, Darmstadt, Germany) was equipped with ESI and operated in positive ionization mode.
Quality control
To ensure precision of the measured samples, 6 QC samples, pooled from the test samples, were measured in each batch. Batches with a coefficient of variation (CV) > 25% were excluded. If at least 75% of the batches for a metabolite passed the intra-batch quality control, the inter-batch CV was calculated, and the metabolite was kept if CV < 30%. In each batch, at most one QC sample was allowed to be an outlier (defined as measurement further away than 1.5 interquartile range (IQR) from the next measurement) and removed.
After quality control, 6 sums and ratios were additionally calculated: sums of PCaa, PCae, total PC, total SM, ratio of total SM to total PC, ratios of NEFA 18:1/18:0 and 16:1/16:0 depicting SCD-1 activity [6], and five ratios of AC 2:0 to mid-chain AC (AC 14:0, 16:0, 16:1, 18:0, 18:1) depicting fatty acid oxidation (FAO) [29].
Statistical treatment
Data preparation
QC and statistical treatment of the data were performed using the statistical software R version 3.4.3 [44].
To ensure interpretability of the results, only subjects with covariates information, mothers with longitudinal metabolomics data (full set analysis) and babies born after the 37th gestational weeks were included. The final sample sizes for maternal and cord analyses were thus 51 and 132 subjects, respectively. Metabolomics outliers identification and removal was performed before models calculation within each blood source and visit time point; outliers were defined as concentration values further away than 3 standard deviations from the next measurements.
Covariables are presented descriptively as median (IQR) or as absolute number (percentage), stratified by blood source and RCT arms. Variables were compared in the two RCT arms using Mann Whitney U-tests.
Main models
For each metabolite, a generalized additive model (GAM) was calculated using the function gam() from the R package mgcv [47]. In the following notations, s(∙) indicates a non-linear effect and 1|∙ the random intercept.
The models for maternal metabolites were calculated as follows: metabolite at 28 weeks ~ RCT group + maternal BMI + metabolite at 13 weeks + s (sample storage time) + 1|batch number. Full results are presented in Additional file 1. Maternal age was included in a first step, but since preliminary results showed weak to no associations with maternal age, the variable was removed to preserve statistical power. For some metabolites of interest, a sensitivity analysis was conducted by re-calculating the models after trimming the highest and lowest 5 concentration values. Additional univariate and multivariate sensitivity analyses (including the association of selected metabolites with dietary fat intakes) and their results are presented in Additional file 2.
The models for cord metabolites were calculated as follows: metabolite ~ RCT group + maternal BMI + gestational age + foetal sex + s (sample storage time) + 1|batch number. As sensitivity analysis, the following covariates were included one at a time in the model: ponderal index (PI) of the new-born, maternal GWG, cord HDL, LDL and total cholesterol. Since the results did not substantially change, these are not presented. Additionally, the calculation of the main model was repeated by including only those maternal/child dyads for which also maternal blood was analysed.
Significance and reported values
From these models, the standardized beta estimates, uncorrected and Bonferroni-corrected p-values and 95% confidence interval of the beta estimate for the RCT variable are reported. Associations with Bonferroni-corrected p-values < 0.05 were defined as ‘significant’, associations with uncorrected p-values < 0.05 were defined as ‘trends’. False discovery rate (FDR) p-values correction was also applied, but, since the significant metabolites did not differ between the two approaches, we used only Bonferroni due to its easier interpretation. Metabolites with uncorrected RCT p-value < 0.05 were visually inspected via grouped boxplots. Results of these models are presented in graphical form via Manhattan plots.