Grant: Operating Grant

Recent studies have established a relationship between diabetes during pregnancy and later-in-life predisposition to obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. While genetics, lifestyle and diet contribute to the development of gestational diabetes, population health evidence suggests that low levels of adiponectin increase the risk for gestational diabetes. Adiponectin is a fat tissue-derived hormone that improves the sensitivity of tissues to the actions of insulin. Understanding the overall role of adiponectin in regulating blood glucose during pregnancy as well as mediating developmental events would provide important information about the mechanisms that control normal and abnormal liver and pancreatic islet development. Using a mouse model of high fat and sucrose diet-induced gestational diabetes, we will investigate how the complete lack of adiponectin increases the severity of gestational diabetes and contributes to obesity, fatty liver and insulin resistance in the offspring. Moreover, we will determine whether increasing maternal adiponectin levels prevents gestational diabetes and the development of adverse health outcomes in the offspring as well as characterize the molecular mechanisms that are involved. We anticipate that this research will lead to novel intervention strategies aimed at diminishing diabetes during pregnancy and its adverse effects on children.