Circulating levels of visfatin and its expression in placental tissue in pregnant women with gestational diabetes

Abstract

Objective To investigate the serum visfatin and placental level of visfatin,peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) γ in pregnant women with or without gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM),analyze their co-relationship and roles in GDM.Methods Fifty-seven pregnant women were enrolled at the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Hebei general hospital from October 2011 to October 2012.All pregnancies were undertaken elective C-section.Thirty of these women suffered from GDM.The remaining 27 age-matched pregnant women with normal oral glucose tolerance test were served as controls.Serum visfatin level,its mRNA expression,PPARγ mRNA expression (quantitative real-time PCR) and its protein level in placental tissue from women with GDM and normal pregnant controls were measured.Results Serum visfatin was significantly lower in women with GDM compared with those in healthy controls [(6.72 ± 3.79) ng/ml vs.(8.87 ± 4.08) ng/ml,t =-2.06,P =0.04].However,there were no differences in visfatin mRNA and protein expression between the two groups(P ＞ 0.05).PPARγ mRNA and protein expression were lower in GDM group compared with the healthy contol group [(0.26 ± 0.11) vs.(0.60 ± 0.41),t=-2.77,P＜0.05;(0.34 ±0.09) vs.(0.73 ±0.13),t =-7.03,P ＜0.05].The visfatin mRNA expression in placenta was positively correlated with PPARγ mRNA expression in GDM group (r =0.67,P =0.02).Conclusions Visfatin may play a role in the pathogenesis of GDM,and there is an association between visfatin and PPARγ in GDM. Key words: Gestational diabetes mellitus ; Visfatin; Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ