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Endocrine Abstracts (2014) 35 P392 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.35.P392

1Department of Gynecology, Medical University of Bialystok, Poland, Bialystok, Poland’; 2Department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Internal Medicine, Medical University of Bialystok, Poland, Bialystok, Poland.


Introduction: Resistin is a cysteine–rich adipokine that was originally described as a molecular link between obesity and insulin resistance. Our previous study showed higher serum resistin levels in patients with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in comparison with healthy pregnant women however conflicting results have been reported by other authors. Therefore in the present study we investigated whether there were significant differences in resistin mRNA expression in adipose and placental tissue obtained from pregnant women with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and GDM.

Methods: Resistin, adiponectin and Interleukin-6 (IL-6) mRNA expression was measured in paired samples of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and placental tissue from 21 patients with GDM and 21 healthy pregnant controls, using quantitative RT-PCR.

Results: The patients with GDM had significantly higher resistin mRNA expression in placental tissue (P=0.03) and lower adiponectin mRNA expression in VAT (P=0.039), whereas IL-6 mRNA expression did not differ markedly between the groups studied. Resistin mRNA expression in SAT and VAT correlated positively with IL-6 mRNA (R=0.54, P=0.0004 and R=0.44, P=0.009 respectively) and negatively with adiponectin mRNA expression (R=−0.35, P=0.03 and R=−0.39, P=0.02 respectively), whereas resistin mRNA expression in placental tissue was positively associated with IL-6 mRNA (R=0.68, P=0.00001), HOMA-IR (R=0.42, P=0.03) and newborn weight (R=0.40, P=0.02).

Conclusions: Our results suggest that elevated resistin expression in placental tissue might be associated with insulin resistance and low grade inflammation in women with GDM.

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