Sarcouncil Journal of Biomedical Sciences

Abstract: This paper examined the relationships between maternal serum concentrations of spexin and ghrelin with birth weight of neonatal and bilirubin in term pregnancies. This is a prospective cohort study that was done using 97 pregnant women who were in term (greater than 37 weeks of gestation) with subsequent approval and informed consent by the Institutional Review Board. Blood samples of the mother were taken within 24 hrs before delivery, following an overnight starvation of the people to take measurements of spexin and ghrelin using commercial ELISA kits. Medical records were used to record neonatal outcomes such as birth weight, bilirubin (48 hours of postpartum), gestational age, gender, and low birth weight (<2500 g). Analyses were performed on Pearson correlations, multivariate linear regression controlled by maternal age, gestational age, and BMI, and one-way ANOVA by hormone tertiles (p<0.05 significant). Maternal spexin was 2.525g, + 0.8 NgmL and positively related with birth weight (r=0.25, p=0.014) and negatively with bilirubin (r=0.22, p=0.032). Spexin in regressions significantly predicted an increase in birth weight ( 42.5, p=0.010) and a decrease in bilirubin ( 0.85, p=0.003), and the gestational age and BMI were also important. Tertile statistics affirmed that high spexin levels were related to high birth weight (p=0.032) and low bilirubin (p=0.001); high levels of ghrelin tertiles were correlated with high bilirubin (p=0.008) and finally we concluded Increased maternal spexin levels are linked to good birth outcomes such as high birth weight and reduced bilirubin and this effect is independent of confounders indicating that it is protective in term pregnancies.