Gut Microbes To Help With Gestational Diabetes Diagnosis

According to a recent Bar-Ilan University study, gestational diabetes can be identified months earlier than it usually is, in the first trimester of pregnancy.
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a disorder wherein pregnant women without a history of diabetes experience glucose intolerance. Currently, GDM, which affects 10% of expectant mothers globally, is identified in the second trimester of pregnancy.

One of the first studies to demonstrate accurate GDM prediction months before it is generally diagnosed, the new study was conducted by a team of Israeli and foreign researchers led by Prof. Omry Koren of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University.

Women who eventually develop the condition and those who do not show clear changes in the first-trimester gut microbiota (the bacterial population found in the guts of humans and animals). These variations are linked to inflammatory indicators, with increased inflammation and lower levels of advantageous metabolites present in pregnant women who go on to acquire gestational diabetes.

First-trimester pregnancies were used to obtain fecal and serum samples for the investigation. The profiles of the microbiota, metabolites, inflammation, and hormones were identified. Clinical/medical data were obtained from digital health records, and information about diet, smoking, and other lifestyle habits was noted.

The researchers went on to show in animal models that transferring the first-trimester feces of women who later developed gestational diabetes causes the diabetes phenotype to be transferred to germ-free mice, indicating that the gut microbiome may play a role in influencing disease development. The study findings are not population specific. The mice results were reproduced in Finnish and American populations, and the microbiome model, for instance, could predict GDM in Chinese women.

“Recognition of women at risk of gestational diabetes at an early stage of pregnancy may allow specific recommendations for the prevention of the disease—currently by lifestyle modification and in the future perhaps by specific pre, pro, and postbiotic supplementation,” says Prof. Koren.

If gestational diabetes can be prevented, there would be a major reduction in adverse outcomes of gestational diabetes, for the mother and offspring, in both the short and long term, benefiting families worldwide.

The study was published in the journal Gut.

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