Growth in utero and serum cholesterol concentrations in adult life

This is a study of 219 men and women born in the same hospital during 1939-40. Serum concentration of total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, and apolipoprotein B were measured. Men and women who had had a small abdominal circumference at birth had raised serum concentrations of total and low density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein B. The association between abdominal circumference at birth and serum cholesterol concentrations in adult life was independent of social class, current body weight, cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. The authors stress that abdominal circumference at birth reflects the size of the liver which has a central role in cholesterol synthesis and excretion.