Antikainen L, et al. - In a controlled cross-sectional study, researchers investigated the impact of maternal gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) on prepubertal children’s height, weight, body mass index (BMI), lipid and glucose metabolism, and low-grade inflammation. Findings revealed that higher high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is a marker of low-grade inflammation in prepubertal children exposed to maternal GDM. No differences were observed in height, weight, BMI, or markers of glucose and lipid metabolism vs control children. The findings from the present study might reflect an ongoing process of metabolic changes in children born following a GDM pregnancy.

Methods

• For this investigation, a cohort of 135 prepubertal Caucasian children (age range 4.4–9.7 years) was analyzed.
• After that, 77 children were then exposed to maternal GDM, and 58 children born after a normal pregnancy served as controls.
• Height, weight, BMI, blood pressure, and biochemical markers of glucose and lipid metabolism and inflammation were the outcomes.

Results

• Between the study groups, no differences were found in height, weight, BMI, fasting serum insulin, plasma glucose, lipids, or blood pressure.
• It was observed that hs-CRP was significantly higher in the GDM group than in the controls (p=0.001).