Fucoxanthin levels in maternal serum at birth and eczema risk in offspring in early childhood: a birth cohort study

Abstract

Background: fucoxanthin, a marine xanthophyll carotenoid, has been shown to exert beneficial health effects. Cell-based and animal-based experimental studies have shown that fucoxanthin has the potential to mitigate eczema symptoms. Hence, we sought to assess whether fucoxanthinol 3-arachidate, a fucoxanthin metabolite, measured in maternal serum at birth is associated with eczema development during early childhood.

Methods: data from the 1989/1990 Isle of Wight birth cohort were analyzed. We focused on data obtained from the 1, 2, and 4 years follow-ups. Fucoxanthinol 3-arachidate was measured in maternal serum at the child's birth as abundance relative to the reference lipids. Eczema was ascertained according to parent-reported clinical history and characteristic morphology and distribution. Log-binomial regression models were used to estimate adjusted risk ratios (aRR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results: a total of 592 subjects (49.2% males and 50.8% females) were included in the current analysis. Associations between fucoxanthinol 3-arachidate levels and eczema risk during the first 4 years of life (longitudinal analysis) were evaluated using four modeling approaches, which showed higher fucoxanthinol 3-arachidate levels were associated with reduced eczema risk: (i) aRRper 10 unit increase = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.76–1.03; (ii) aRR>0 vs. =0 = 0.67, 0.45–0.99; (iii) aRR≥2.3 vs. <2.3 = 0.66, 0.44–0.98; and (iv) aRRtertile 3 vs. tertile 1 = 0.65, 0.42–0.99.

Conclusion: our findings suggest that increased fucoxanthinol 3-arachidate levels measured in maternal serum at the child's birth is associated with reduced eczema risk during the first 4 years of the offspring life.

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