Increased cord serum inflammatory markers in small-for-gestational-age neonates

Objective:the pathological picture in ischemic tissue injury shares features with the inflammatory response. hypoxia-mediated induction of interleukin-6 (il-6) could set in motion the mechanisms limiting inflammation in ischemia. intrauterine growth restriction (iugr) represents a human model of chronic fetal hypoxia. the purpose of this study was a first-time exploration to determine whether cord blood obtained at the delivery of small-for-gestational-age (sga) infants has increased concentrations of inflammatory markers.study design:cord blood was collected from 20 sga (term and near-term) infants and 20 appropriate-for-gestational-age (aga) controls. infants exposed to maternal smoking, diabetes, maternal chronic diseases, or alcohol or drug use were excluded. both groups had apgar score ⩾7 at 1 min with a normal cord ph (>7.25). cord-serum cytokines and thrombopoietin (tpo) levels were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. c-reactive protein (crp) was measured using a turbidometric immunoassay.result:sga infants had a significantly smaller birth weight than aga controls, with a smaller gestation age by 1 week. there were significant elevations in il-6, tumor necrosis factor (tnf-α), crp and tpo in the sga compared with the aga group, which persisted in multiple regression analysis even after gestational age was taken into account.conclusion:as hypothesized, significant increases in the cord blood concentrations of known inflammatory markers were found in sga infants compared with the controls.