Subcutaneous fat mass in infancy and abdominal, pericardial and liver fat assessed by Magnetic Resonance Imaging at the age of 10 years

Fat mass development in infancy contributes to later adiposity, but its relation to ectopic fat depots is unknown. We examined the associations of infant subcutaneous fat with childhood general and organ-specific fat. Among 593 children from a population-based prospective cohort study, we obtained total subcutaneous fat mass (as sum of biceps, triceps, suprailiacal, and subscapular skinfolds thickness), central-to-total subcutaneous fat ratio (sum of suprailiacal and subscapular skinfold thickness/total subcutaneous fat) at 1.5, 6 and 24 months of age. At 10 years, we assessed BMI, fat mass index (FMI) based on total body fat by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and abdominal subcutaneous, visceral and pericardial fat mass indices, and liver fat fraction by Magnetic Resonance Imaging. A higher central-to-total subcutaneous fat ratio at 1.5 months only and higher total subcutaneous fat at 6 and 24 months were associated with higher BMI, FMI and subcutaneous fat mass index at 10 years. The observed associations were the strongest between total subcutaneous fat at 24 months and these childhood outcomes (difference per 1-SDS increase in total subcutaneous fat: 0.15 SDS (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.08, 0.23), 0.17 SDS (95% CI 0.10, 0.24), 0.16 SDS (95% CI 0.08, 0.23) for BMI, FMI and childhood subcutaneous fat mass index, respectively). Infant subcutaneous fat measures at any time point were not associated with visceral and pericardial fat mass indices, and liver fat fraction at 10 years. Our results suggest that infant subcutaneous fat is associated with later childhood abdominal subcutaneous fat and general adiposity, but not with other organ-specific fat depots.