Reduced fetal telomere length in gestational diabetes

Jian Xu; Junyi Ye; Yanting Wu; Hong Zhang; Qiong Luo; Cong Han; Xiaoqun Ye; Hanzhi Wang; Jing He; Hefeng Huang; Yun Liu; Minyue Dong

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0086161

Reduced fetal telomere length in gestational diabetes

PLoS One. 2014 Jan 22;9(1):e86161. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0086161. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Jian Xu¹, Junyi Ye², Yanting Wu³, Hong Zhang², Qiong Luo³, Cong Han³, Xiaoqun Ye³, Hanzhi Wang³, Jing He³, Hefeng Huang¹, Yun Liu⁴, Minyue Dong¹

Affiliations

¹ Women's Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China ; Key Laboratory of Reproductive Genetics, Ministry of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.
² Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
³ Women's Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.
⁴ Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China ; Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, The Ministry of Education, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is an important complication of pregnancy that poses significant threats to women and their offspring. Telomere length shortens as cellular damage increases and is associated with metabolic diseases. Telomere length in fetal leucocytes was determined in 82 infants of women with GDM (N = 82) and 65 normal pregnant women (N = 65). Women with preeclampsia (N = 45) and gestational hypertension (N = 23) were also studied. In the GDM group, telomere length was significantly shorter than normal pregnancy (P = 0.028), but there were no significant differences in fetal telomere length between preeclampsia and normal pregnancy (P = 0.841) and between gestational hypertension and normal pregnancy (P = 0.561). Regression analysis revealed that fetal telomere length was significantly associated with intrauterine exposure to GDM (P = 0.027 after adjustment for maternal age, gestational age at delivery, birth weight and fetal gender). Shortened telomere length may increase the risk of metabolic diseases in adulthood of GDM offspring.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Diabetes, Gestational / metabolism*
Female
Fetus / metabolism*
Humans
Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced / metabolism
Leukocytes / metabolism
Male
Pre-Eclampsia / metabolism
Pregnancy
Telomere Shortening*

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB944903) (www.most.gov.cn) and Natural Scientific Foundation of China (81170572) (www.nsfc.gov.cn). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.