Grant: Doctoral: Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

Pre-diabetes in pregnancy is a natural phenomenon that only results in diabetes if the insulin levels are incapable of regulating post-meal blood sugars. Diabetes in pregnancy causes increased risk to mother and fetus for development of diabetes and obesity, as well as long-term health complications for the mother (high blood pressure, blindness, limb loss, etc). The pre-diabetic state in pregnancy is resistance to the hormone insulin, which is proposed to be related to a recently characterized molecule called Hepatic Insulin Sensitizing Substance (HISS). This condition is typified by the inability of muscle to respond to insulin, creating a state whereby nutrients are converted to and stored as fat in fatty areas (instead of sugar chains in muscle). In normal animals both a high sugar diet and chronic alcohol consumption result in insulin resistance due to HISS. The impact of a high sugar diet will be examined for its effect on a pregnant female rat (using a metabolic blood sugar test) and pregnancy outcomes (such as fetal loss and pup number). By studying an animal model of diabetes in pregnancy, the mechanism of this pregnancy-induced pre-diabetes may be understood. An antioxidant cocktail S-adenosyl methionine, Vitamin E and Vitamin C (Samec) shown to additively protect against diet-induced insulin resistance associated with the HISS molecule will be tested on the pregnant females to see if it is able to prevent and/or treat diabetes during pregnancy. Samec will present a novel therapeutic in the treatment of diabetes in pregnancy and these studies will determine the suitability of a randomized control trial in the pregnant population.