Are children conceived with assisted technologies at risk for cardiometabolic events?

Children conceived by their parents through non-in vitro fertilization fertility treatment show no metabolic difference from those conceived spontaneously, according to a study.

On the other hand, small metabolic differences exist between assisted reproductive technology (ART)-conceived children and those conceived spontaneously. However, the differences are not clinically significant and must be examined in future studies, the authors said.

The Developmental Epidemiological Study of Children born through Reproductive Technology (DESCRT) included children conceived by parent/s receiving infertility care at the University of California, San Francisco, US, between 2000 and 2017.

The authors performed serum metabolomic analyses using sample from 143 enrolled children (aged 4‒12 years, 43 percent female) conceived using NIFT or ART (with fresh or frozen embryos with and without intracytoplasmic sperm injection [ICSI]) and those conceived spontaneously by subfertile couples. The distribution of metabolites between groups was then compared using principal component analysis and multivariable regression.

Separation in metabolites based on treatment or sex was not observed. NIFT-conceived children had no differences from spontaneously conceived counterparts. Only spontaneously conceived children showed different metabolomics profiles from those conceived from fresh ART, frozen ART, and all ICSI.

Specifically, the fresh ART group had higher pantoate and propionylglycine levels than the spontaneous group (p<0.001). Propionylglycine levels were also increased in the ICSI group (both fresh and frozen) compared to the spontaneous group (p<0.001). Moreover, the frozen ART group had decreased 5-oxoproline levels relative to the spontaneous group (p<0.001).

“ART and NIFT are treatments for infertility,” the authors said. “These technologies may have long-term health effects in children such as increased hypertension, glucose intolerance, and hypertriglyceridaemia.”