Serum concentrations of IGF-I/IGF-II as biomarkers of alcohol damage during foetal development and diagnostic markers of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome

Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is the most deleterious health effect derived from alcohol consumption during pregnancy and is placed at the end of the Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Few studies have proposed potential molecular biomarkers of physical and neurological damage associated with prenatal alcohol exposure. We prospectively recruited 55 children from 8 to 12 years old, with a prenatal assessment for ethanol exposure using meconium analysis of fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE). The control group was established for FAEE < 2 nmol/g (n = 31) and a Prenatal Ethanol Exposure (PEE) group for FAEEs > 2 nmol/g (n = 33). Moreover, 98 children adopted from Eastern European Countries (EEC) were also recruited to evaluate FASD diagnosis comprising 31 cases with complete FAS, 42 with partial FAS, 6 with ARBD and 5 with ARND. Serum values of IGF-I and IGF-II for all children recruited were determined by immunoassay. Anthropometric and neurocognitive evaluation showed severe impairments in FAS children, moderate effects in PEE and no harmful effects in the control group with no prenatal exposure to alcohol. Analysis of IGF-I and IGF-II serum concentrations revealed that FASD from EEC as well as PEE children showed significantly lower concentrations of both IGF-I and IFG-II than the control group and reference values. Moreover, Spearman correlations showed a significant effect of IGF-I on anthropometric measurements in girls, whereas IGF-II affected the neuropsychological variables in both genders. These findings validate the use of growth factors IGF-I and IGF-II as surrogate biomarkers of damage induced by prenatal exposure to ethanol and could be used in the diagnosis of foetal alcohol spectrum disorders.