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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Clinical Diabetes
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1490336

Decreased telomerase activity and shortened telomere length in infants whose mothers have gestational diabetes mellitus and increased severity of telomere shortening in male infants

Provisionally accepted
Shuhua Liu Shuhua Liu 1*Liping Xu Liping Xu 2Yan Cheng Yan Cheng 2Dehong Liu Dehong Liu 1Bin Zhang Bin Zhang 1Xianxia Chen Xianxia Chen 1Mingming Zheng Mingming Zheng 1
  • 1 Hefei Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Hefei, China
  • 2 Fifth School of Clinical Medicine, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common complication during pregnancy and increases the risk of metabolic diseases in offspring. We hypothesize that the poor intrauterine environment in pregnant women with GDM may lead to chromosomal DNA damage and telomere damage in umbilical cord blood cells, providing evidence of an association between intrauterine programming and increased long-term metabolic disease risk in offspring.We measured telomere length (TL), serum telomerase (TE) activity, and oxidative stress markers in umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells (CBMCs) from pregnant women with GDM (N=200) and healthy controls (Ctrls) (N=200) and analysed the associations of TL with demographic characteristics, biochemical indicators, and blood glucose levels.The length of telomeres in umbilical CBMCs in the GDM group was significantly shorter than that in the Ctrl group (P<0.001), and the shortening of telomeres in male infants in the GDM group was more significant than that in the Ctrl group (P<0.001) after adjustment for Pre-pregnancy body mass index (PBMI), Pregnancy weight gain (PGW), and Triglyceride (TG) as confounding factors. In addition, the TE expression level in the GDM group was lower after adjustment.There was no statistically significant difference in oxidative stress hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) between the two groups. TL was positively correlated with TE activity, and both were negatively correlated with blood glucose levels. There was no correlation between TL and Gestational age (GA), PBMI, PGW, or TG levels.The poor intrauterine environment in pregnant women with GDM increases telomere attrition and reduces TE activity, which may be potential genetic risk factors for an increased risk of metabolic diseases in offspring later in life due to intrauterine reprogramming.

    Keywords: TL, Telomerase, te, telomere length, gestational diabetes mellitus, GDM

    Received: 03 Sep 2024; Accepted: 02 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liu, Xu, Cheng, Liu, Zhang, Chen and Zheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shuhua Liu, Hefei Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Hefei, China

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