Pregnant Diabetic Women’s Babies at Risk

British researchers are identifying new methods for early and accurate monitoring of the risks faced by pregnant diabetic women.

Women with type 1 or type 2 diabetes have four times as many stillbirths as non-diabetic women.

Warwick University Medical School researchers have focused on the alterations in the hormonal metabolism of pregnant women and the metabolic signals between mother and fetus.

Dr. Harpal Randeva, Dr. Paul O’Hare, Dr. Dimitris Grammatopoulos and Manu Vatish found adiponectin levels — a signaling molecule, mainly produced by fat cells — were higher in pregnant women with type 1 diabetes at all stages of the study compared with the non-diabetic patients.

The researchers believe that the fetus produces adiponectin to protect itself from an adverse environment.

The findings, published in Clinical Endocrinology, may be of vital importance since altered adiponectin levels could now be used to help give effective and early monitoring of the risks faced by women with type 1 diabetes and identify babies who are at risk.