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Intake of antioxidant vitamins and trace elements during pregnancy and risk of advanced β cell autoimmunity in the child ^1,2,3

¹ From the Tampere School of Public Health, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland (LU, SMV, JN, and LM); the Department of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland (LU, SMV, UU, JN, SN, CK-K, and M-LO); the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Medical Statistics Unit, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom (MGK); the Research Unit (SMV) and Department of Pediatrics (MK), Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland; the Department of Public Health (SN) and the Hospital for Children and Adolescents (MK), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; the Department of Pediatrics (OS) and the Immunogenetics Laboratory (JI), University of Turku, Turku, Finland; the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Center for Prevention of Type 1 Diabetes in Finland, Turku, Oulu, and Tampere, Finland (OS and MK); the Department of Clinical Microbiology, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland (JI); and the Department of Pediatrics, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland (RV)

Background: Type 1 diabetes may have its origins in the fetal period of life. Free radicals were implicated in the cause of type 1 diabetes. It was hypothesized that antioxidant nutrients could protect against type 1 diabetes.

Objective: We assessed whether high maternal intake of selected dietary antioxidants during pregnancy is associated with a reduced risk of advanced β cell autoimmunity in the child, defined as repeated positivity for islet cell antibodies plus 1 other antibody, overt type 1 diabetes, or both.

Design: The study was carried out as part of the population-based birth cohort of the Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention Project. The data comprised 4297 children with increased genetic susceptibility to type 1 diabetes, born at the University Hospital of Oulu or Tampere, Finland, between October 1997 and December 2002. The children were monitored for diabetes-associated autoantibodies from samples obtained at 3–12-mo intervals. Maternal antioxidant intake during pregnancy was assessed postnatally with a self-administered food-frequency questionnaire, which contained a question about consumption of dietary supplements.

Results: Maternal intake of none of the studied antioxidant nutrients showed association with the risk of advanced β cell autoimmunity in the child. The hazard ratios, indicating the change in risk per a 2-fold increase in the intake of each antioxidant, were nonsignificant and close to 1.

Conclusion: High maternal intake of retinol, β-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, zinc, or manganese does not protect the child from development of advanced β cell autoimmunity in early childhood.