Research Article - Biomedical Research (2017) Volume 28, Issue 10

Long-term risk of metabolic disorders in gestational diabetes mellitus mothers and offspring

Background: The incidence of Gestational Diabetes and Mellitus (GDM) is increasing at recent. It was hypothesized that offspring of mothers with GDM may have a relatively high risk for metabolic diseases, but there is still a controversy. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the long-term risk of glucose and lipid metabolic disorders in offspring of GDM mothers.

Methods: GDM mothers (n=467) who gave birth in our department from February 1998 to July 2005 were enrolled and 123 patients were followed up (GDM group). Non-GDM mothers (n=80) admitted were also followed up (non-GDM group). Related clinical parameters of the offspring in both two groups were collected and analysed.

Results: Compared with non-GDM mothers, GDM mothers had significantly higher serum fasting glucose (5.71 ± 0.95 vs. 5.3 ± 0.96 mmol/L) and triglyceride level (1.89 ± 0.68 vs. 1.68 ± 0.56 mmol/L), and there were more patients with overweight or obesity (33.33% vs. 20.0%), waist circumference ≥ 85 cm (39.02% vs. 23.75%), fasting glucose ≥ 6.1 mmol/L (28.46% vs. 13.75%), diastolic blood pressure ≥ 85 mmHg (18.70% vs. 6.25%) and metabolic syndrome (14.63% vs. 0.05%) (all Ps<0.05), respectively. The offspring in GDM group had higher serum fasting glucose and triglyceride and the percentage of the offspring with overweight or obesity (26.02% vs. 7.50%), fasting glucose ≥ 6.1 mmol/L (9.80% vs. 2.50%) and high triglyceride (12.19% vs. 3.75%) in GDM group was higher than that in non-GDM group (all Ps<0.05).

Conclusions: The offspring of GDM mothers were prone to develop metabolic disorders including impaired glucose intolerance and hyperlipidemia, thus increasing the risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Author(s): Teng Zhen-Juan, Xia Ming-Jing, Qu Chang-Hua, Yu Hong-Xia

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