Amino acid profiling in the gestational diabetes mellitus

BACKGROUND The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is increasing globally which is associated with various side effects for mothers and fetus. It seems that metabolomic profiling of the amino acids may be useful in early diagnosis of metabolic diseases. This study aimed to explore the association of the amino acids profiles with GDM. METHODS Eighty three pregnant women with gestational age ≥25 weeks were randomly selected among pregnant women referred to prenatal care clinic in Arash hospital of Tehran, Iran. Women divided into three groups including 1) 25 pregnant women with normal glucose tolerance test, 2) 27 pregnant women with diabetes type 2 (T2D) (n: 27) and 3) 31 women with GDM (n: 31). Plasma levels of amino acids were measured by high performance liquid chromatography and were compared in three groups. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 16. RESULTS Compared with normal mothers, GDM mothers showed higher plasma concentrations of Arginine (P = 0.01), Glycine (P = 0.01) and Methionine (P = 0.04), whereas the pregnant women with T2D had higher plasma levels of Asparagine (P = 0.01), Tyrosine (P < 0.01), Valine (P < 0.01), Phenylalanine (P < 0.01), Glutamine (P < 0.01) and Isolucine (P < 0.01). The results of regression analyses confirmed the significantly elevated in plasma concentration of Asparagine (OR:3.64, CI 1.22-10.47), Threonine (OR:3.38, CI 1.39-8.25), Aspartic acid (OR:3.92, CI 1.19-12.91), Phenylalanine (OR:2.66, CI 1.01-6.94), Glutamine (OR:2.53, CI 1.02-6.26) and Arginine (OR:1.96, CI 1.02-3.76) after adjustment for gestational age and BMI in GDM mothers compared to normal ones. CONCLUSIONS Amino acids levels are associated with risk of GDM and diabetes mellitus. However further prospective studies are needed to clarify the role of different metabolites involved in mechanism of GDM.