Body Composition Unit

Body composition studies play a key role in understanding childhood growth and development. Questions such as whether body weight or lean body mass is the best indicator of when premature babies are healthy enough to go home, or whether very chubby babies are more prone to develop cardiovascular problems as adults, can only be answered with research using precise body composition measurements and appropriate standard reference values.

The CNRC Body Composition Unit is the only laboratory of its type in the nation that can provide a complete complement of body composition measurements in all populations ranging from low-birth-weight infants to adults. These high-precision measurements are associated with fat, fat-free mass, bone mineral content, total body water, extracellular water, adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, and other important body parameters. These measurements are used in a wide variety of CNRC research studies and in collaborative projects with other organizations. The laboratory also develops and validates new methods for assessing body composition in children. Data from the laboratory’s research is also being used to develop age, gender and ethnic-specific body composition standard references, such those for bone mineral content and bone mineral density.

In addition to publications associated with the development of the Body Composition Laboratory, some more recent articles are listed below. Data for these studies come from research protocols that utilized the resources and instrumentation available in the Body Composition Laboratory.

Shawar RS, Puyau M, Shypailo R, Musaad S, Butte NF, Bacha F. Adiposity, Insulin Resistance, Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Bone Health in Hispanic Children. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2022 Jun 06. DOI: 10.1210/clinem/dgac344

Song IW, Nagamani SC, Nguyen D, Grafe I, Sutton VR, Gannon FH, Munivez E, Jiang MM, Tran A, Wallace M, Esposito P, Musaad S, Strudthoff E, McGuire S, Thornton M, Shenava V, Rosenfeld S, Huang S, Shypailo R, Orwoll E, Lee B. Targeting TGF-ß for treatment of osteogenesis imperfecta. J Clin Invest. 2022 04 01; 132(7). DOI: 10.1172/JCI152571

Hou R, Cole SA, Graff M, Wang Y, Haack K, Laston S, Mehta NR, Shypailo RJ, Gourlay ML, Comuzzie AG, North KE, Butte NF, Voruganti VS. Genetic variants and physical activity interact to affect bone density in Hispanic children. BMC Pediatr. 2021 02 15; 21(1):79. DOI: 10.1186/s12887-021-02537-y

Shayota BJ, Zhang C, Shypailo RJ, Mazzeu JF, Carvalho CMB, Sutton VR. Characterization of the Robinow syndrome skeletal phenotype, bone micro-architecture, and genotype-phenotype correlations with the osteosclerotic form. Am J Med Genet A 2020; DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.a.61843

Shypailo RJ, Wong WW. Fat and fat-free mass index references in children and young adults: assessments along racial and ethnic lines. Am J Clin Nutr 2020; DOI:10.1093/ajcn/nqaa128

Bergner EM, Shypailo R, Visuthranukul C, Hagan J, O'Donnell AR, Hawthorne KM, Abrams SA, Hair AB. Growth, body composition, and neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 years among preterm infants fed an exclusive human milk diet in the neonatal intensive care unit: a pilot study. Breastfeed Med 2020; DOI: 10.1089/bfm.2019.0210

Bergner EM, Shypailo R, Visuthranukul C, Hagan J, O'Donnell AR, Hawthorne KM, Abrams SA, Hair AB. Growth, body composition, and neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 years among preterm infants fed an exclusive human milk diet in the neonatal intensive care unit: a pilot study. Breastfeed Med 2020; DOI: 10.1089/bfm.2019.0210

Hou R, Cole SA, Graff M, Haack K, Laston S, Comuzzie AG, Mehta NR, Ryan K, Cousminer DL, Zemel BS, Grant S, Mitchell BD, Shypailo RJ, Gourlay ML, North KE, Butte NF, Voruganti VS. Genetic variants affecting bone mineral density and bone mineral content at multiple skeletal sites in Hispanic children. Bone 2020; 132; 115175. DOI: 10.1016/j.bone.2019.115175

Workeneh B, Moore LW, Nolte Fong JV, Shypailo R, Gaber AO, Mitch WE. Successful kidney transplantation is associated with weight gain from truncal obesity and insulin resistance. J Ren Nutr 2019; 29(6):548-555. DOI: 10.1053/j.jrn.2019.01.009

Gandhi M, Gandhi R, Mack L, Shypailo R, Adolph AL, Puyau MR, Wong WW, Deter RL, Sangi-Haghpeykar H, Lee W, Butte NF. Impact of changes in maternal body composition on birth weight and neonatal fat mass in dichorionic twin pregnancies. Am J Clin Nutr 2018; 108(4):716-721.

Frequently cited publications

Ellis KJ, Yao M, Shypailo RJ, Urlando A, Wong WW, Heird WC. Body-composition assessment in infancy: air-displacement plethysmography compared with a reference 4-compartment model. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jan; 85(1):90-5. DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/85.1.90

Bell KA, Wagner CL, Feldman HA, Shypailo RJ, Belfort MB. Associations of infant feeding with trajectories of body composition and growth. Am J Clin Nutr. 2017 Aug; 106(2):491-498. DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.116.151126 

Ellis KJ. Human body composition: in vivo methods. Physiol Rev. 2000 Apr;80(2):649-80. doi: 10.1152/physrev.2000.80.2.649. PMID: 10747204.