Male and female cord blood lipoprotein profile differences throughout the term-period.

Age- and gender-related differences in cord serum lipids and lipoproteins were studied in 548 singletons from the Toledo Study, Spain, aged 37.0- < 42.0 wk, with body weight between 2.500 and 3.999 kg and Apgar score of > or = 7 at 1 min and > or = 9 at 5 min. Cord total cholesterol (TC) and LDL-cholesterol were significantly higher in females than in males (1.89 +/- 0.53 vs 1.72 +/- 0.42 mmol/l, p < 0.001; and 0.88 +/- 0.43 vs 0.74 +/- 0.36 mmol/l, p < 0.001, respectively). With the exception of triglycerides which significantly increased through the term period in males and females (both p < 0.01), other serum and lipoprotein lipids remained rather constant between wks 38 and 42 in both sexes. However, all lipids and lipoproteins tended to be higher in 38 wk- than in 37 wk-newborns. Females showed higher HDL-cholesterol levels (p < 0.05) at wk 37, and higher TC and LDL-cholesterol values (both p < 0.05) at wks 39 and 40. TC was more or less equivalently carried by LDL and HDL in both sexes but males transported significantly more cholesterol by VLDL (p < 0.001) and less by LDL (p < 0.05) than females. TC was significantly correlated with LDL-cholesterol (p < 0.001) and HDL-cholesterol (p < 0.001). The different levels of TC and LDL-cholesterol, and the cholesterol distribution for lipoproteins in male and female neonates suggest that gender-related factors might influence lipid levels at term-period.