Abstract
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common medical complication associated with pregnancy. The incidence of GDM in Saudi Arabia ranged from 3.8% to 12.5 according to the American Diabetes Association and World Health Organization criteria respectively. The goal of the present study was to investigate the changes of some adipokines including: retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4), vaspin and chemerin at 2nd and 3rd trimesters and their associations with markers of insulin resistance in GDM compared to normal pregnancy. The study included 88 pregnant women classified into 4 groups: normal pregnancy (n=19) and pregnancy with GDM (n=25) at 2nd trimester and normal pregnancy (n=18) and pregnancy with GDM (n=26) at 3rd trimester. Both GDM and control groups were matched for maternal age (MA), gestational age (GA) and body mass index (BMI). Results indicated that GDM subjects either 2nd or 3rd trimesters had significantly elevated fasting blood glucose (FBG), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and markers of IR compared to matched normoglycemic control. At 2nd trimester, RBP4 was significantly decreased in GDM compared to control, however vaspin and chemerin were comparable between the two groups. RBP4 was significantly correlated with IR in GDM group only. No associations were detected between either vaspin or chemerin with IR in GDM. On the other hand, at 3rd trimester, chemerin was significantly higher in GDM compared to control, while vaspin showed no variations between both groups. In addition, chemerin was correlated with FBG and HOMA1-% B. It could be concluded that RBP4 and chemerin might be involved in the increased of IR in associated with GDM.