1.
Dietary proteins and IGF I levels in preterm infants: determinants of growth, body composition, and neurodevelopment.
Yumani, DF, Lafeber, HN, van Weissenbruch, MM
Pediatric research. 2015;(1-2):156-63
Abstract
It has been demonstrated that a high-protein diet in preterm born infants during the first weeks of life may enable a growth rate equal to that seen in utero and may also result in a better long-term neurodevelopmental outcome. This diet may limit immediate postnatal growth retardation and may hence lower the risk of increased fat deposition after birth leading to the metabolic syndrome in later life. Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF I) has proven to play an important role in early postnatal growth of preterm infants, but also seems to have a persisting influence on body composition in childhood. Furthermore, increased IGF I concentrations in preterm infants have been associated with improved neurodevelopmental outcome. This review will elaborate on the role of dietary proteins and IGF I on growth, body composition, and neurodevelopment of preterm infants. Possible causal pathways will be explored and areas for future research will be proposed.
2.
Development of whole body adiposity in preterm infants.
Griffin, IJ, Cooke, RJ
Early human development. 2012;:S19-24
Abstract
The long-term effects of prematurity, early diet and catch-up growth on metabolic risk and body adiposity are of increasing interest to Neonatologists. Poor growth is known to be associated with poorer neuro-developmental outcome but concern exists that increased rates of "catch-up" (or "recovery") growth may be associated with increased adiposity and the later development of metabolic syndrome. In this manuscript we review the published data on body composition in preterm infants, and present new analyses of body adiposity in preterm infants during the 12-15 months of life, and the effect of growth rate (weight gain) on body adiposity. We conclude that although preterm infants have increased adiposity at term corrected age, they generally have lower body fat than their term peers during the rest of the 12-15 months of life. Although more rapid "catch-up" growth in preterm infants during the first year of life is associated with greater body fatness than slower rates of growth, these higher rates of growth lead to body composition more similar to that of the term-born infant, than do slower rates of growth. Although more studies are needed to determine whether these short-term increases or the longer-term decreases in adiposity modify the risk on chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension or other components of the metabolic syndrome, the widely held concern that preterm babies have greater adiposity than their term peers, and that this is worsened by greater amounts of catch-up growth, are not supported by the available evidence.