Effect of intrauterine infection and perinatal risk factors on serum concentrations of insulin like growth factor (IGF-I) in full-term and preterm newborns

OBJECTIVES: IGF-I is believed to be a key factor in fetal growth dynamics It is widely known, that serious early-onset infection in the newborn is a risk factor for further developmental disturbances in a child. However, effect of congenital infection as well as an influence of infectious and non-infectious perinatal risk factors on circulating IGF-I concentrations in newborns has not been examined, yet. DESIGN: Thus, the aim of this study was: 1) evaluation of IGF-I venous blood serum concentration in full-term and premature infants considering their sex, occurrence of intrauterine infection and perinatal risk factors; 2) establishing the relationship between IGF-I serum concentrations and choosen anthropometric parameters values in infected and healthy newborns. SETTING: The study involved 112 newborns appropriate for gestational age. Taking into consideration occurrence of early onset infection and gestational age we divided examined children into 4 groups: I group - infected, full-term newborns; II group - infected premature newborns; III group - healthy full-term newborns; IV group - healthy premature newborns. In all infants immediately after birth anthropometric measurements were performed (birth weight, body length, circumference of head and circumference of chest) and serum IGF-I concentration was determined. RESULTS: We demonstrated that full-term infants with intrauterine infection have statistically significantly higher concentration of IGF-I in blood serum than infected premature infiants and healthy full-term infants. Analysis of correlation revealed a significant positive linear correlations between IGF-I serum concentration and gestational age and anthropometric parameters values. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that intrauterine infection increases serum IGF-I concentration in full-term infants, but not in preterm infants, that may be a result of immaturity. We suggest serum IGF-I concentration may be considered an additional element of developmental and nutritional state assessment in infected newborn.