Plasma levels of asymmetric dimethylarginine in premature neonates: its possible involvement in developmental programming of chronic diseases.

AIM: The endothel dysfunction in early life may play a role in developmental programming of cardiovascular morbidity. The changes of dimethylarginines' plasma levels during the first month among preterm infants and their determinants had been investigated in our study.
METHODS: Twenty preterm infants of healthy mothers were studied. Mean (+/-SD) birth weight and gestational age were 919.5 +/- 235.5 g and 26.7 +/- 1.6 weeks, respectively. Blood samples were taken by venipuncture at the 3rd, 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th days. Plasma concentrations of L-arginine, asymmetric and symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) were measured by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method, evaluated by multivariate linear regression analysis.
RESULTS: L-arginine (p < 0.001) and asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) levels (p < 0.001) were positively associated with postnatal age. ADMA levels were negatively correlated with gestational age (p = 0.007), dopamine-need on the 3rd day of life (p = 0.015) and late infection (p = 0.038). The higher birth weight was associated with higher L-arginine (p = 0.052) and ADMA (p = 0.002) concentrations. The dopamine-need on the 7th day of life had a significant effect on postnatal elevation of SDMA levels (p = 0.035).
CONCLUSION: The progressive increase of ADMA levels described by our study among preterm infants suggests that early endothel dysfunction may take part in developmental programming of chronic adult diseases.