Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Gestational diabetes mellitus complicates up to 14% of pregnancies worldwide. Gestational diabetes mellitus women are more frequently affected by changes in bone turnover during pregnancy. Osteocalcin, ostoblast derived protein is suspected to be involved in the regulation of glucose and fat metabolism.

Aim of the work: is to study serum osteocalcin levels in women with gestational diabetes mellitus.

Subjects and methods: This study included sixty pregnant women at 22nd to 28 weeks of pregnancy. They are subdivided into 30 women diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus and 30 healthy pregnant women. All subjects included subjected to full history taking, clinical examination and laboratory investigations which includes 100 g oral glucose tolerance test, HbA1c, lipid profile, fasting serum insulin, HOMA-IR and fasting serum osteocalcin level.

Results: Serum osteocalcin was lower in gestational diabetes mellitus women (3.70±1.55 ng/dl) than healthy pregnant women (16.61±5.30) (P<0.001). There was a highly significant negative correlation between serum osteocalcin level and fasting blood glucose, 2 h postprandial blood glucose, HbA1c, fasting serum insulin, HOMA-IR, total cholesterol, serum triglycerides, LDL-cholesterol and highly significant positive correlation with HDL-cholesterol (P<0.001).

Conclusion: Serum osteocalcin level may have a role in glucose homeostasis in gestational diabetes mellitus.