Association of maternal plasma total cysteine and growth among infants in Nepal: A cohort study

Abstract

Cysteine is a conditionally essential amino acid that has been positively associated with growth in children. However, transgenerational effects remain unclear. The aim of this analysis was to assess whether maternal plasma total cysteine (tCys) concentration is associated with various growth indicators in infants living in peri-urban settings in Bhaktapur, Nepal. We used data from the 561 mothers enrolled in an ongoing randomized controlled trial. We built linear regression models to evaluate the association between maternal tCys and birth weight, length-for-age Z-scores (LAZ) and weight-for-length Z-scores (WLZ) at birth and 6 months of age. Maternal tCys was inversely associated with birth weight among boys after adjusting for confounders. There was a negative association between maternal tCys and LAZ at birth among boys. No associations between maternal tCys and WLZ at birth or WLZ/LAZ at 6 months of age were found significant, although there was a trend for maternal tCys to be associated positively with WLZ at birth among girls. This is a first study evaluating transgenerational relation of tCys on growth in infants. Further, larger and more comprehensive studies are needed to determine if and how maternal tCys alters child growth.