Abstract
Background/Objectives: Lipid metabolism plays an important role in maternal health and fetal development. There is a gap in the knowledge of how lipid metabolism changes during pregnancy for Black women who are at a higher risk of adverse outcomes. We hypothesized that the comprehensive lipidome profiles would show variation across pregnancy indicative of requirements during gestation and fetal development. Methods: Black women were recruited at prenatal clinics. Plasma samples were collected at 8-18 weeks (T(1)), 22-29 weeks (T(2)), and 30-36 weeks (T(3)) of pregnancy. Samples from 64 women who had term births (≥37 weeks gestation) were subjected to "shotgun" Orbitrap mass spectrometry. Mixed-effects models were used to quantify systematic changes and dimensionality reduction models were used to visualize patterns and identify reliable lipid signatures. Results: Total lipids and major lipid classes showed significant increases with the progression of pregnancy. Phospholipids and glycerolipids exhibited a gradual increase from T(1) to T(2) to T(3), while sphingolipids and total sterol lipids displayed a more pronounced increase from T(2) to T(3). Acylcarnitines, hydroxy acylcarnitines, and Lyso phospholipid levels significantly decreased from T(1) to T(3). A deviation was that non-esterified fatty acids decreased from T(1) to T(2) and increased again from T(2) to T(3), suggestive of a potential role for these lipids during the later stages of pregnancy. The fatty acids showing this trend included key fatty acids-non-esterified Linoleic acid, Arachidonic acid, Alpha-linolenic acid, Eicosapentaenoic acid, Docosapentaenoic acid, and Docosahexaenoic acid. Conclusions: Mapping lipid patterns and identifying lipid signatures would help develop intervention strategies to reduce perinatal health disparities among pregnant Black women.