Postpartum lipid dysregulation in African American women who experienced cardiometabolic complications of pregnancy.

African American women are disproportionately troubled with cardiometabolic complications of pregnancy (CMCPreg), including gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, and preeclampsia. These adverse outcomes of pregnancy often lead to future diagnoses of diabetes mellitus, chronic hypertension, and/or atherosclerosis. Lipid dysregulation is hallmark of these disorders. To investigate whether this lipid dysregulation is prolonged after pregnancy, we performed untargeted lipidomics on serum collected 8-10 months postpartum from African American women who were diagnosed with CMCPreg and from those with uncomplicated, term deliveries. We identified 11 lipids that were significantly increased in the CMCPreg group and lipid enrichment pathway analysis revealed dysregulated activity of glycerophospholipid, sphingolipid, and endocannabinoid metabolism pathways, sphingolipid signaling pathways, and ferroptosis. These findings confirm extended lipid dysregulation as far as 8-10 months postpartum among this group of women and identifies potential therapeutic targets/pathways that could be leveraged to prevent further cardiometabolic disease progression.