Associations of Plasma Fatty Acid Patterns During Pregnancy With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Overview

Journal Front Nutr

Specialty Nutritional Sciences

Date 2022 May 23

PMID 35600822

Authors

Peiyun Li

Shan Hu

Yalun Zhu

Taoping Sun

Yue Huang

Zihui Xu

Hongjie Liu

Cheng Luo

Shiqiong Zhou

Aijun Tan

Liegang Liu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Limited studies have explored the difference of fatty acid profile between women with and without gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), and the results were inconsistent. Individual fatty acids tend to be interrelated because of the shared food sources and metabolic pathways. Thus, whether fatty acid patters during pregnancy were related to GDM odds needs further exploration.

Objective: To identify plasma fatty acid patters during pregnancy and their associations with odds of GDM.

Methods: A hospital-based case-control study including 217 GDM cases and 217 matched controls was carried out in urban Wuhan, China from August 2012 to April 2015. All the participants were enrolled at the time of GDM screening and provided fasting blood samples with informed consent. We measured plasma concentrations of fatty acids by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and derived potential fatty acid patterns (FAPs) through principal components analysis. Conditional logistic regression and restricted cubic spline model were used to evaluate the associations between individual fatty acids or FAPs and odds of GDM.

Results: Twenty individual fatty acids with relative concentrations ≥0.05% were included in the analyses. Compared with control group, GDM group had significantly higher concentrations of total fatty acids, 24:1n-9, and relatively lower levels of 14:0, 15:0, 17:0, 18:0, 24:0, 16:1n-7, 20:1n-9,18:3n-6, 20:2n-6, 18:3n-3, 20:3n-3, 22:5n-3. Two novel patterns of fatty acids were identified to be associated with lower odds of GDM: (1) relatively higher odd-chain fatty acids, 14:0, 18:0, 18:3n-3, 20:2n-6, 20:3n-6 and lower 24:1n-9 and 18:2n-6 [adjusted odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval) (CI) for quartiles 4 vs. 1: 0.42 (0.23-0.76), -trend = 0.002], (2) relatively higher n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, 24:0, 18:3n-6 and lower 16:0 and 20:4n-6 [adjusted OR (95% CI) for quartiles 4 vs. 1: 0.48 (0.26-0.90), -trend = 0.018].

Conclusion: Our findings suggested that two novel FAPs were inversely associated with GDM odds. The combination of circulating fatty acids could be a more significant marker of GDM development than individual fatty acids or their subgroups.

Citing Articles

Association between erythrocyte polyunsaturated fatty acids and gestational diabetes mellitus in Chinese pregnant women.

Tang N, He Y, Karatela S, Zhong J, Zeng X, Lu Q Eur J Nutr. 2025; 64(2):87.

PMID: 39932572 DOI: 10.1007/s00394-025-03603-2.

Association of maternal blood metabolomics and gestational diabetes mellitus risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Zhou J, Yu J, Ren J, Ren Y, Zeng Y, Wu Y Rev Endocr Metab Disord. 2024; .

PMID: 39602052 DOI: 10.1007/s11154-024-09934-5.

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