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Low Somatomedin C and High Growth Hormone Levels in Newborns Damaged by Maternal Alcohol Abuse

From the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Third Department of Medicine, and the Department of Clinical Chemistry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

Abstract

To study the mechanism of alcohol-induced fetal damage, we determined the somatomedin C and growth hormone (GH) concentrations of umbilical cord blood samples in 56 infants of alcohol-abusing women and in 20 infants of alcohol-abstinent women. In addition, maternal serum somatomedin C concentrations were determined 1-7 days before delivery. Twenty-five infants born to alcohol-abusing mothers were growth-retarded and also had other signs of fetal alcohol effects, but the remaining 31 infants born to the drinkers and all infants of abstinent mothers were healthy. The somatomedin C levels of infants with fetal alcohol effects (mean ± SD 4.6 ± 1.5 nmol/L) were lower (P<.005) than the levels of healthy infants of drinking (6.8 ± 4.0 nmol/L) or abstinent (7.1 ± 3.3 nmol/L) mothers, but the levels did not correlate with infant birth weight, placental weight, or fetal GH or maternal somatomedin C levels. Alcohol drinking was not associated with any changes in maternal somatomedin C levels. The GH levels of infants with fetal alcohol effects (25.4 ± 22.6 ng/mL) were elevated (P<.01) when compared with those of infants of abstinent mothers (13.1 ±5.3 ng/mL), but did not differ from those of healthy infants of drinking mothers (19.9 ± 15.1 ng/mL). Low somatomedin C levels and high GH levels in infants born to the drinkers suggest a disharmony in the regulation of the synthesis and/or release of these growth factors, which may be of importance in alcohol-induced fetal damage.

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