Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Vitamin D Receptor Gene Affect Birth Weight and the Risk of Preterm Birth: Results From the “Mamma & Bambino” Cohort and A Meta-Analysis
Nutrients 2018, 10(9), 1172; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10091172
Martina Barchitta 1OrcID, Andrea Maugeri 1OrcID, Maria Clara La Rosa 1, Roberta Magnano San Lio 1, Giuliana Favara 1, Marco Panella 2, Antonio Cianci 2 and Antonella Agodi 1,* OrcID
1 Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and Advanced Technologies “GF Ingrassia”, University of Catania, via S. Sofia, 87, 95123 Catania, Italy
2 Department of General Surgery and Medical Surgical Specialties, University of Catania, Via S. Sofia, 78, 95123 Catania, Italy
- (This article belongs to the Special Issue Micronutrients Intake and Status during Pregnancy and Lactation)
Use of Iodine-Containing Dietary Supplements Remains Low among Women of Reproductive Age in the United States: NHANES 2011–2014
– only 18% had used any Iodine-containing supplement https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10040422
- Many previous preterm birth studies have found that increasing Vitamin D resulted in decreased preterm births
- Many other studies have also found that poor Vitamin D Receptors were associated with a large increases in Vitamin D-associated health problems
- A poor Vitamin D Receptor restricts how much vitamin D actually gets to the cells
- The risk of 44 diseases at least double with poor Vitamin D Receptor as of Oct 2019
- Preterm birth 9 X more likely if fetus had a poor Vitamin D Receptor and previous miscarriage – Aug 2017
- Vitamin D Receptor is associated with preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and preterm birth – Nov 2017 3.3X
- Preterm births strongly related to Vitamin D, Vitamin D Receptor, Iodine, Omega-3, etc
Unfortunately this study did not report on other features associated with preterm birth
Vitamin D levels
Iodine levels
Omega-3 levels
Non-white mothers
 Download the PDF from Vitamin D Life
The effect of vitamin D receptor gene (VDR) polymorphisms on adverse pregnancy outcomes—including preterm birth (PTB), low birth weight and small for gestational age—is currently under debate. We investigated 187 mother-child pairs from the Italian “Mamma & Bambino” cohort to evaluate the association of maternal VDR polymorphisms—BsmI, ApaI, FokI and TaqI—with neonatal anthropometric measures and the risk of PTB. To corroborate our results, we conducted a meta-analysis of observational studies. For the FokI polymorphism, we showed that gestational duration and birth weight decreased with increasing number of A allele (p = 0.040 and p = 0.010, respectively).
Compared to the GG and GA genotypes, mothers who carried the AA genotype exhibited higher PTB risk (OR = 12.049; 95% CI = 2.606–55.709; p = 0.001) after adjusting for covariates. The meta-analysis confirmed this association under the recessive model (OR = 3.67, 95%CI 1.18–11.43), and also pointed out the protective effect of BsmI polymorphism against the risk of PTB under the allelic (A vs. G: OR = 0.74; 95%CI 0.59–0.93) and recessive (AA vs. GG + AG: OR = 0.62; 95%CI 0.43–0.89) models. Our results suggest the association between some maternal VDR polymorphisms with neonatal anthropometric measures and the risk of PTB.