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

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundFucoxanthin, 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.MethodsData 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).ResultsA 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.ConclusionOur 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.