Abstract

Background: Glycated albumin (GA) represents a useful tool reflecting glycemic homeostasis over a period of 3 weeks and has been recently proposed as a screening marker for diabetes among non-pregnant individuals. However, data on GA during pregnancy are sparse in general and lacking among women of diverse race/ethnicity. We aimed to investigate longitudinal levels of GA in pregnancy among U.S. women of multi-race/ethnicity. Methods: We quantified GA and cardiometabolic biomarkers using blood samples collected at 8-13, 15-26 (fasting sample), 26-31, and 33-39 gestational weeks from 214 pregnant women without gestational diabetes in the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies-Singletons. We examined distributions of GA across pregnancy and their associations with major characteristics of study participants such as race/ethnicity, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), fetal sex, and selected cardiometabolic biomarkers. Results: Overall, GA tended to increase from early pregnancy to 2nd trimester and decrease through the 3rd trimester; medians (inter-quartile range) were 12.1% (10.6-13.4), 12.5 (10.7-13.8),12.4 (10.9-13.5) and 11.5 (10.4-12.5) at 8-13, 15-26, 26-31, and 33-39 gestational weeks, respectively. A similar pattern was observed across race/ethnicity groups (p for interaction =0.71). At 8-13 gestational weeks, GA concentrations were significantly and inversely related to pre-pregnancy BMI, waist circumference and waist/hip ratio, and plasma HDL and adiponectin levels, but significantly and positively related to triglyceride levels. Interestingly, GA levels were neither significantly related to HbA1c over pregnancy, nor to fasting inulin, glucose, or HOMA-IR. GA levels did not vary significantly by race/ethnicity or fetus sex. Conclusion: GA appeared not a sensitive marker for glucose metabolism in pregnancy, although it was significantly related to pre-pregnancy adiposity measures and some cardiometabolic biomarkers during pregnancy. Disclosure C. Zhang: None. J. Wu: None. S. Hinkle: None. D. B. Sacks: Research Support; Self; Sebia, Trinity Biotech plc.

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