Abstract
Gestational diabetes mellitus (
GDM
) is a glucose intolerance disorder which occurs during pregnancy as a result of insulin insensitivity; it usually disappears after delivery. However, some women with
GDM
can develop type 2 diabetes (T2D) after delivery, and the mechanisms by which this occurs remain unknown. This study compared the levels of sirtuins (
NAD
‐dependent deacetylases) and antioxidative enzymes in postpartum women with previous
GDM
(
pGDM
) or T2D and in postpartum women with a previous healthy pregnancy (controls). Women with
pGDM
showed upregulated levels of sirtuin 1 (
SIRT
1)
mRNA
and protein, with reduced expression levels of sirtuin 3 (
SIRT
3
) and superoxide dismutase 2 (
SOD
2
), relative to the controls. Women with T2D similarly showed a lower level of
SIRT
3
mRNA
than the controls. Lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde) was higher in women with pGDM than in the controls. These data show that in women with
pGDM
, the reduced level of
SIRT
3
may play a role in the reduced
SOD
2
level, possibly leading to oxidative stress, which, in turn, upregulates the level of
SIRT
1
. These results might confer the risk of future diabetes development in women with
pGDM
, as a similar reduction in
SIRT
3
was found in women with T2D.