Lipidomic analysis reveals the significant increase in diacylglycerophosphocholines in umbilical cord blood from pregnant women with gestational hypercholesterolemia

Gestational hypercholesterolemia has been recognized as a risk factor of some pregnancy complications. We supposed that maternal hypercholesterolemia modified the lipid profile of the fetus. Thirty pregnant women with hypercholesterolemia and matched controls were recruited and cord blood was sampled. Lipidomic analysis was used to evaluate the lipid profile change between the two groups. The results showed that the content of diacylglycerophosphocholines (PC) was significantly high in cord blood from hypercholesterolemic pregnant women. PC (16:0/20:4) and PC (18:0/20:4) were selected as the most important lipid species in cord plasma and their contents were positively related to the total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in cord blood. The contents of these two PCs were significantly higher in the hypercholesterolemic group than in the control group. These results suggested that gestational hypercholesterolemia might program the phospholipid metabolism in offspring.