Growth faltering in children arises from metabolic and endocrine dysfunction driven by complex interactions between poor diet, persistent infections, and immunopathology. Here, we determined the progression of the plasma lipidome among Gambian children (n = 409) and assessed its association with growth faltering during the first 2 years of life using the panel vector autoregression method. We further investigated temporal associations among lipid clusters. We observed that measures of stunting, wasting, and underweight are dynamically associated with each other and that lipid groups containing polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and phosphatidylcholines consistently predict future growth outcomes. Linear growth was dynamically associated with the majority of lipids, indicating a higher nutritional demand to improve height compared to weight among growth-restricted children. Our results indicate a critical role for PUFAs and choline in early life dietary interventions to combat the child growth faltering still so prevalent in low-income settings.

中文翻译：

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血脂和生长迟缓：一项针对冈比亚农村儿童的纵向队列研究

儿童生长迟缓是由不良饮食、持续感染和免疫病理学之间复杂的相互作用驱动的代谢和内分泌功能障碍引起的。在这里，我们确定了冈比亚儿童血浆脂质组的进展（n= 409) 并使用面板向量自回归方法评估其与生命最初 2 年内生长迟缓的关联。我们进一步研究了脂质簇之间的时间关联。我们观察到，发育迟缓、消瘦和体重不足的指标相互动态相关，并且含有多不饱和脂肪酸 (PUFA) 和磷脂酰胆碱的脂质组一致预测未来的生长结果。线性生长与大多数脂质动态相关，表明与生长受限儿童相比，增加身高的营养需求高于体重。我们的结果表明，多不饱和脂肪酸和胆碱在早期饮食干预中发挥着关键作用，以对抗在低收入环境中仍然普遍存在的儿童生长迟缓。