The Impact of Gestational Diabetes in Pregnancy on the Cardiovascular System of Children at One Year of Age

Comparison irisin peptide serum level in pregnant women with and without gestational diabetes mellitus: A case-control study

INTRODUCTION

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a metabolic disease that affects mother and foetus during pregnancy, causing acute and chronic adverse effects. Irisin is proposed as a novel marker to predict GDM. The aim of this study was to assess the role of irisin peptide serum levels in gestational diabetes and compare with healthy pregnant women.

METHODS

This case-control study was conducted on women at 24 to 34 weeks of gestation in Ghaem Hospital affiliated with Mashhad University of Medical Sciences between May 2016 and June 2019. In two study groups, GDM and non-GDM women, an association between maternal serum irisin levels and clinical and biochemical parameters were evaluated. Maternal serum irisin levels were measured by an enzyme immunoassay method. Body mass index, serum levels of glucose, oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), insulin, haemoglobin A1C, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA IR) and irisin were evaluated.

RESULTS

Totally, 56 participants (30 non-GDM women and 26 women with GDM) were enrolled. Not statistically significant was observed in serum irisin levels between GDM and non-GDM women. (p = .814) Irisin levels were not significantly associated with maternal age, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, the number of pregnancies, gestational age, fasting blood sugar, insulin, HOMA IR, one-hour and two-hour serum glucose and body mass index.

CONCLUSIONS

There is no significant difference between GDM and non-GDM groups in the case of irisin value and later, no association of irisin with metabolic and anthropometric parameters. These findings need to be assessed in future experiments.

Effects of Probiotic Supplementation during Pregnancy on the Future Maternal Risk of Metabolic Syndrome

Probiotics are live microorganisms that induce health benefits in the host. Taking probiotics is generally safe and well tolerated by pregnant women and their children. Consumption of probiotics can result in both prophylactic and therapeutic effects. In healthy adult humans, the gut microbiome is stable at the level of the dominant taxa: Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, and has a higher presence of Verrucomicrobia. During pregnancy, an increase in the number of Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria phyla and a decrease in the beneficial species Roseburia intestinalis and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii are observed. Pregnancy is a "window" to the mother's future health. The aim of this paper is to review studies assessing the potentially beneficial effects of probiotics in preventing the development of diseases that appear during pregnancy, which are currently considered as risk factors for the development of metabolic syndrome, and consequently, reducing the risk of developing maternal metabolic syndrome in the future. The use of probiotics in gestational diabetes mellitus, preeclampsia and excessive gestational weight gain is reviewed. Probiotics are a relatively new intervention that can prevent the development of these disorders during pregnancy, and thus, would reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome resulting from these disorders in the mother's future.

Novel Biomolecules in the Pathogenesis of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus 2.0

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has become a major public health problem and one of the most discussed issues in modern obstetrics. GDM is associated with serious adverse perinatal outcomes and long-term health consequences for both the mother and child. Currently, the importance and purposefulness of finding a biopredictor that will enable the identification of women with an increased risk of developing GDM as early as the beginning of pregnancy are highly emphasized. Both “older” molecules, such as adiponectin and leptin, and “newer” adipokines, including fatty acid-binding protein 4 (FABP4), have proven to be of pathophysiological importance in GDM. Therefore, in our previous review, we presented 13 novel biomolecules, i.e., galectins, growth differentiation factor-15, chemerin, omentin-1, osteocalcin, resistin, visfatin, vaspin, irisin, apelin, FABP4, fibroblast growth factor 21, and lipocalin-2. The purpose of this review is to present the potential and importance of another nine lesser known molecules in the pathogenesis of GDM, i.e., 3-carboxy-4-methyl-5-propyl-2-furanpropanoic acid (CMPF), angiopoietin-like protein-8 (ANGPTL-8), nesfatin-1, afamin, adropin, fetuin-A, zonulin, secreted frizzled-related proteins (SFRPs), and amylin. It seems that two of them, fetuin-A and zonulin in high serum levels, may be applied as biopredictors of GDM.