Examining Associations Between Dietary Inflammatory Index in Pregnancy, Pro-inflammatory Cytokine and Chemokine Levels at Birth, and Offspring Asthma and/or Wheeze by Age 4 Years

Background Few studies have demonstrated associations between maternal dietary inflammatory index (DII) during pregnancy and offspring asthma and/or wheeze. Objective The study aimed to assess associations between maternal DII during pregnancy and 1) offspring cord sera pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin [IL]-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor-α) and chemokines (IL-8, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1) at birth and 2) offspring asthma and/or wheeze at age 4 years. Design The Healthy Start study is a prospective prebirth longitudinal study that recruited pregnant women in Denver, Colorado and tracked their offspring. Participants and setting This study used data from 1228 mother-child dyads enrolled in the Healthy Start study. Pregnant women were recruited in Denver, Colorado, between 2009 and 2014, and offspring tracked until age 4 years. Main outcome measures Cord sera cytokines and chemokines were analyzed with multiplex panel immunoassays. Offspring diagnosis of asthma and/or wheeze by age 4 years was extracted from electronic medical records. Statistical analyses performed Unadjusted and adjusted linear and logistic regression models were used to assess associations. Covariates included factors such as nulliparity, race/ethnicity, gestational smoking, and maternal history of asthma. Results Unadjusted analysis showed that increasing maternal DII scores were associated with increased odds of child asthma and/or wheeze by 4 years (odds ratio = 1.17; 95% CI: 1.07-1.27), but the association was attenuated and no longer statistically significant in the adjusted model (odds ratio = 1.15; 95% CI: 0.99-1.33). There were no significant associations between DII scores and cord sera cytokine or chemokine levels. Conclusions The study showed that the inflammatory profile of the maternal diet was not associated with cytokines and chemokine levels at birth. The results suggested that a more inflammatory maternal diet was associated with increased odds of offspring asthma and/or wheeze by age 4 years, which could be considered of clinical relevance but the finding was not statistically significant at the .05 level.