Insulin-like growth factor and its dynamics in babies born from mothers with obesity

Insulin-like growth factor is one of the regulators of fetal growth in the intrauterine period, and is responsible for its further development. Purpose. To study postnatal growth in relation to insulin-like growth factor-1 and somatotropic hormonelevels in infants born to obese mothers. Materials and methods. The prospective study included 18 children (16 full-term and 2 premature infants of gestational age 31-35 weeks) born to mothers who were obese before pregnancy (group 1) and 18 children (17 full-term and 1 premature baby of gestational age 34 weeks) from mothers with normal body mass index before pregnancy. Weight and height were estimated at birth, at 3 and 6 months. Serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 and somatotropic hormonewere determined by ELISA at birth in umbilical cord blood at 3, 6 and 12 months. Results. During the neonatal period, at 3 and 6 months, height and weight did not have significant differences in both groups. At the age of 1 year in group 1 weight and height were higher than in group 2 (p < 0.05). Indicators of insulin-like growth factor-1 (128.71 ± 74.29 and 21.33 ± 15.21 ) and somatotropic hormone (4.3 ± 1.5 and 1.84 ± 0.36) was also higher in children of group 1 aged 1 year. Conclusion. Changes in the somatotropic hormone – insulin-like growth factor-1 axis in children born to obese mothers may form the basis of metabolic syndrome in the future.