Nivele s de éstere s Eti l de ácid os Gra sos (FAEE) y perfi l enzimático hepático en s angre cordonal de re cién na cidos de madre s consumidora s y no co nsumidora s de alcoh ol

Several epid emiological studies state th at alcohol co nsumption d uringpregn a ncy is th e main cause of avoid able conge nital defects, b eing o n e ofth e thre e main ca uses of me ntal retard ation a n d th e only fully preventableo n e. I t is known that alco hol intake, eve n small amo u nts, causes a series ofsp ecific alco hol-consumptio n metabol ites to for m in th e h e p atic cell from th e esterificatio n of various fre e fat ty acids w ith eth anol which produce what iskn own as fat ty acid ethyl esters (FAEE). A ST, ALT, G GT d oses wered eter mine d as part of th e h e p atic profi le, since these are the enzymes th atusual ly b ecome altere d during alcohol co nsumption. Th us, th e main objectiveof this work was to deter min e blood FAE E from n e o n ate’s umbilical cord ofalco hol-consuming a n d non-co nsuming moth ers, in ord er to deter minewh ether such esters could be used as alcohol-co nsumptio n biomarkers forth e diagn osis of alco holic fetal syndrome. 6 6 moth ers at tending th e so uthmaternity hospital in Vale ncia were studie d, which were divid e d into twogro u ps: 4 5 alcohol-consuming a n d 21 alcohol-non-consuming wome n duringpregn a ncy. Results reveale d a high h epatic profi le and FAE E in ne onates ofalco hol-consuming moth ers, c1 8:1 being fo u n d in the total sample.Additio nal ly, 8 7% w ith c16:0 and 7 8% w ith c18:0; a stro ng relationshipb etwee n enzymatic profi le an d c18:1 (r =0.6 7 p < 0.0 000 1) was o bserve d. Inco nclusion, FAEE ca n b e consid ered as specific alcohol-consumptio nbiomarkers