Fig. 1
a Regression lines along with 95% confidence intervals and individual spots of fetal total cholesterol concentrations (Y-axis) depending on gestational age at delivery (X-axis) are displayed separately for IUGR and CTRL fetuses. Note that blood cholesterol concentrations in IUGR fetuses are lower especially early and before 34 weeks of gestation when compared to CTRL as indicated by the non-overlapping 95% confidence intervals. CTRL: Y = -2.476*X + 161.4, R2 = 0.2196, P = 0.0007. IUGR: Y = -0.8135*X + 85.1, R2 = 0.0274, P = 0.2556. b Regression lines and individual spots of total cholesterol concentrations related to neonatal birth weights and depending on gestational age at delivery are displayed separately for IUGR and CTRL fetuses on a logarithmic ordinal scale. Note that fetal cholesterol concentration adjusted to fetal weight in both study groups are similar; both decrease significantly with ongoing gestational age. CTRL: Y = -0.1723*X + 6.988, R2 = 0.6143, p < 0.0001. IUGR: Y = -0.1883*X + 7.643, R2 = 0.5226, p < 0.0001. c Regression lines of assumed fetal body cholesterol accumulation as calculated by blood cholesterol concentration multiplied with birth weight and related to weeks of gestation at delivery are displayed separately for IUGR and CTRL fetuses. CTRL: Y = 0.2656*X - 4.715, R2 = 0.5709, p < 0.0001; IUGR: Y = 0.1955*X - 4.386, R2 = 0.5214, p < 0.0001. Adjusted for gestational age, the demand on cholesterol appears to be twice as high in CTRL compared to IUGR fetuses (p < 0.0001)