Lipid metabolism during gestation and its implications for intrauterine development.

Abstract

The benefit that maternal hypertriglyceridemia has for the fetus and newborn is multiple, in spite of the fact that triglycerides do not cross the placenta: 1) Under fasting conditions, circulating triglycerides are driven to the liver where the increment of lipoprotein lipase activity (LPL) from extrahepatic sources allows their use for ketone body synthesis. The ketone bodies are released into the circulation, easily cross the placenta and used by the fetus; 2) The presence of LPL in the placenta allows essential dietary fatty acids carried as triglycerides in maternal plasma to become available to the fetus, and 3) The induction of LPL activity in the mammary gland around parturition drives maternal plasma triglycerides to this organ allowing essential fatty acids of dietary origin to become available to the suckling newborn.