Relationships among acylation-stimulating protein, insulin resistance, lipometabolism, and fetal growth in gestational diabetes mellitus women

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential relationship between acylation-stimulating protein (ASP), insulin resistance, lipometabolism, the intrauterine metabolic environment and fetal growth in well-controlled gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) women. A total of 55 well-controlled GDM women, 66 pregnant women with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and their newborns, were included in this study. Fasting maternal and cord blood ASP, serum lipid profiles, glucose level, insulin level, HOMA-IR, in addition to neonatal anthropometry data, were measured. Maternal blood ASP in GDM is higher than that in NGT. In the GDM group, maternal blood ASP has a positive correlation with TG, FFA and HOMA-IR. Maternal and cord blood ASP levels of LGA fetuses correlate with elevated birth weight and SF4. Similarly, cord blood ASP levels of LGA fetuses also correlate with birth weight and SF4 in the NGT group. The maternal blood ASP level of GDM mothers is associated with lipometabolism, insulin resistance and LGA fetal growth. Nevertheless, the cord blood ASP level correlates with FFA of GDM mothers, LGA fetal growth of GDM and NGT mothers. ASP may be a biomarker for evaluating insulin resistance of GDM and LGA fetal growth.

Keywords::

• Acylation-stimulating protein
• insulin resistance
• fetal growth
• lipometabolism
• subcutaneous fat accumulation

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Professor Katherine Cianflone for providing monoclonal antibodies, polyclonal antibodies, working standard, and control for ASP immunoassay. This study was supported by grants from the Science and Society Development Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (No. 2011B031800023).

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.