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ARS Home » Plains Area » Houston, Texas » Children's Nutrition Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #329999
Title: Energy and protein supplementation does not affect protein and amino acid kinetics or pregnancy outcomes in underweight Indian women

Author
item DWARKANATH, PRATIBHA - St John'S National Academy Of Health Sciences
item HSU, JEAN - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item TANG, GRACE - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item ANAND, PAULINE - St John'S National Academy Of Health Sciences
item THOMAS, TINKU - St John'S National Academy Of Health Sciences
item THOMAS, ANNAMMA - St John'S National Academy Of Health Sciences
item SHEELA, C - St John'S National Academy Of Health Sciences
item KURPAD, ANURA - St John'S National Academy Of Health Sciences
item JAHOOR, FAROOK - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)

Submitted to: Journal of Nutrition
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/8/2015
Publication Date: 2/1/2016
Citation: Dwarkanath, P., Hsu, J.W., Tang, G.J., Anand, P., Thomas, T., Thomas, A., Sheela, C.N., Kurpad, A.V., Jahoor, F. 2016. Energy and protein supplementation does not affect protein and amino acid kinetics or pregnancy outcomes in underweight Indian women. Journal of Nutrition. 146(2):218-226.

Interpretive Summary: In India, underweight pregnant women give birth to a high number of low birth weight babies suggesting that underweight women are not able to provide sufficient energy and protein for their baby to grow normally in the womb. As pregnancy progresses, there is increased need to provide a compound called methyl, which the fetus needs to make new DNA and proteins, and, unlike normal weight American women, underweight Indian women are unable to make more methyl as pregnancy progresses. This also restricts growth of the fetus. In this study we wanted to determine the effect of supplementing the women's diets with 300 calories of energy and 15 grams of protein from week 12 of pregnancy to time of delivery, on the mother's and baby's weights, the amount of methyl group and the amount of serine and glycine, two compounds which are the suppliers of methyl in the body, are being made by the mother. We found that supplementing the underweight women's diet did not improve the mother's and baby's weights, the amount of methyl group being made by the mother and the amounts of serine and glycine being made by the mother. This finding suggest that in order to have a normal weight baby, it is important for a woman to have a normal body weight before becoming pregnant, because consuming more food during pregnancy does not mean that an underweight woman will deliver a normal weight baby.

Technical Abstract: In India, the prevalence of low birth weight is high in women with a low body mass index (BMI), suggesting that underweight women are not capable of providing adequate energy and protein for fetal growth. Furthermore, as pregnancy progresses, there is increased need to provide methyl groups for methylation reactions associated with the synthesis of new proteins and, unlike normal-BMI American women, low-BMI Indian women are unable to increase methionine transmethylation and remethylation rates as pregnancy progresses from trimester 1 to 3. This also negatively influences birth weight. The aim was to determine the effect of dietary supplementation with energy and protein from 12 +/- 1 wk of gestation to time of delivery compared with no supplement on pregnancy outcomes, protein kinetics, and the fluxes of the methyl group donors serine and glycine. Protein kinetics and serine and glycine fluxes were measured by using standard stable isotope tracer methods in the fasting and postprandial states in 24 pregnant women aged 22.9 +/- 0.7 y with low BMIs [BMI (in kg/m**2)