Grant: Meetings Planning & Dissemination Grant: Reproductive and Child Health

The objective of this application to the CIHR-IHDCYH's Meetings, planning and Dissemination Grant is to bring investigators from different disciplines, such as perinatal epidemiology, obstetrics, endocrinology, nutrition and food sciences, and biochemistry, to develop a collaborative research program in the study of GDM. We will then submit applications to CIHR, Canadian Diabetes Association, and Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada for large operating grants to answer the following study questions: 1) Whether pre-conception insulin resistance (measured by the Homeostasis Model of Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR)) predicts an increased risk of developing GDM? 2) Whether excessive fall in serum levels of the fat-derived protein adiponectin from pre-conception to early gestation (<20 weeks) will predict the development of GDM? 3) What is the independent effect of GDM on postpartum cardio-metabolic risk factor profile? 4) What are the health effects of soluble fibers in postpartum women with a history of GDM? 5) Is enterovirus infection a cause of type 1 diabetes mellitus? The specific hypotheses for these study questions are: 1) Compared to women with lower insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), women in the highest quartile of HOMA-IR prior to pregnancy will have an increased risk of GDM; 2) Women with the greatest decline in adiponectin levels from pre-conception to early gestation will have an increased risk of GDM; 3) The cardio-metabolic risk factor profile observed in the postpartum following GDM is present prior to conception and is not independently worsened by the GDM pregnancy; 4) The functional food that contains large amount of soluble fibers developed by Agriculture Canada can reduce T2DM and cardiovascular risks in postpartum women with a history of GDM. 5) Young men or women infected by enterovirus are at increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes mellitus.