Objective. Pregnancy can cause diabetic conditions and gestational diabetes is the most common metabolic disorder of the era. Scientific evidence suggests that obesity increases the incidence and severity of gestational diabetes. Adipokines are proteins secreted from adipose tissue in response to extracellular stimuli and altered metabolism. These hormones are involved in regulating the energy balance, lipid metabolism, and insulin sensitivity. One of the types of adipokines is called adiponectin, which has anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-atherogenic effects. Accordingly, this study is aimed to investigate the correlation between the serum adiponectin level with the gestational diabetes and the postpartum metabolic syndrome.
Methods. This case-control study was carried out on 37 pregnant women (in Sari, Iran) with gestational diabetes and 37 non-diabetic pregnant women who were matched regarding age and body mass index (BMI). Serum adiponectin and glucose levels were measured. Finally, six weeks after termination of pregnancy, women in both groups were evaluated for metabolic syndrome. All statistical analyses of this study were performed using IBM SPSS software version 21 and, in all cases, the two-way p value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results. The mean age of pregnant women was 28.46±4.11 years in the non-diabetic group and 30.03±4.71 in the diabetic group. There was no statistically significant difference found between the mean age (p=0.123) and BMI (p=0.727) in two groups. Serum adiponectin levels in the diabetic group (5.51±3.15 µg/ml) were significantly lower than in the non-diabetic group (8.35±4.54 µg/ml) (p=0.003). In the diabetic group, serum adiponectin level did not correlate with the maternal age, maternal BMI, and postpartum metabolic syndrome (p>0.005).
Conclusions. The results of the present study indicate a correlation of low adiponectin concentrations with gestational diabetes, but this association with postpartum metabolic syndrome is uncertain. However, to elucidate the mechanism of adiponectin in predicting gestational diabetes and postpartum metabolic syndrome further studies are required.
