Association of sedentary time and physical activity levels with immunometabolic markers in early pregnancy: The GESTAFIT project.

Objectives: To analyze the association of sedentary time and physical activity (PA) intensity levels with immunometabolic markers during early pregnancy; and to examine if meeting the PA recommendations is associated with the immunometabolic profile of pregnant women.

Methods: Fifty Caucasian pregnant women (age: 32.8 ± 4.7 years old, body mass index: 24.2 ± 4.1kg/m , gestational age: 17 ± 1.5weeks) participated in this cross-sectional study (from September 2015 through May 2016). Sedentary time and PA intensity levels were objectively measured with triaxial accelerometer (seven consecutive valid days). Fasting serum glucose, total cholesterol, phospholipids, and triglycerides were assessed with standard methods. Serum pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines (fractalkine, interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, interleukin-8, interleukin-10, interferon-γ, and tumor necrosis factor-α) were measured using Luminex xMAP technology.

Results: Sedentary time and PA were not correlated with any glycemic or lipid marker (P > .05). After adjusting for the potential confounders, vigorous PA showed a positive non-significant association with interleukin-6 (P = .06), and bouts of moderate-vigorous PA was inversely associated with interleukin-1β and interferon-γ (P = .02 and P = .04, respectively). Meeting the PA guidelines was inversely associated with interleukin-1β and positively associated with interleukin-8 (P = .01 and P = .04, respectively). These associations disappeared after controlling for multiplicity.

Conclusions: Increasing the time spent in moderate-vigorous PA, or meeting the PA recommendations, is associated with the cytokine profile of women without metabolic disruptions in early pregnancy. However, sedentary time and PA do not seem to be associated with glucose or lipid levels. These results should be interpreted cautiously in view of the discrepancies after adjusting for multiple comparisons. Future studies in this novel field of research are warranted before reaching any conclusion.