Cord blood lipids in infants born to HIV-1-infected women treated with combination antiretroviral therapy

Background: To investigate the effect of exposure to protease inhibitor (PI) therapy in utero on cord blood lipids in infants born to mothers enrolled in AIDS Clinical Trials Group protocol 5084, a prospective, multi-centre, observational study of antiretroviral therapy (ART) during pregnancy. Methods: Clinical outcome was determined in 80 infants born to women treated with PIs and 73 infants born to women treated with other antiretrovirals during pregnancy. Cord blood serum from 117 of these infants was assayed for total, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglyceride, apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1), apolipoprotein B100 (apoB) and lipoprotein (a). Covariates considered in the analysis included race/ethnicity, gestational age, infant gender, infant birth weight, mode of delivery, maternal tobacco and alcohol use, post-partum body mass index, and ART duration. Results: Cord blood total and HDL cholesterol, triglyceride, apoA1, apoB, lipoprotein (a) and apoB/apoA1 ratio were not different between the two groups. Cord blood lipid levels in these HIV-exposed infants were similar to those reported in other neonatal cohorts. Controlling for race/ethnicity, infants born to women treated with PIs had higher LDL cholesterol than those born to women not treated with PIs (29 mg/dl versus 27 mg/dl, P=0.006). Conclusion: Only LDL cholesterol was significantly higher in the cord blood of PI-exposed infants versus those not exposed to PIs in utero. As the difference between the two groups was small, the clinical relevance of the effect of maternal PI treatment on infant LDL cholesterol levels at birth is not clear.