Elevated serum resistin levels in women with prior gestational diabetes

ABSTRACT

Resistin was not studied before as a potential biochemical mediator of insulin resistance in patients with prior GDM. Gestational diabetes mellitus [GDM] is a risk factor for both type 2 diabetes [DM2] and insulin resistance syndrome. Early reports suggested that resistin is associated with insulin resistance and type 2 DM. However subsequent studies have not supporting these findings. The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of resistin as a biomarker of insulin resistance in women with prior GDM. This study was conducted on 20 women with a history of GDM and 16 women with a history of normal pregnancy [control group]. The two groups were matched regarding the age, BMI, postpartum duration and the parity numbers. For all subjects, Serum resistin and HOMA IR were measured. As compared with control group, HOMA IR and serum resistin were significantly higher in women with history of previous GDM [3.97 +/- 0.71 Vs 3.51 +/- 0.5, P = 0.034], [4.9 +/- 0.89 Vs 3.5 +/- 1.06, P = 0.011] respectively. Furthermore serum resistin levels was significantly positively correlated with both BMI and HOMA IR in women with prior GDM [r 0.500, P = 0.025; r 0.527, P = 0.017] respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study addressing resistin in women with prior GDM which might explain the underlying pathogenetic mechanisms for future development of type 2 DM