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Maternal diabetes puts minority children at risk for type 2 diabetes
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Exposure to diabetes in utero significantly impairs beta-cell function in minority children with type 2 diabetes, contributing to earlier diagnosis, according to research presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies and Asian Society for Pediatric Research joint meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia.
“We found that if the child is born to a mother with diagnosis either before or during the pregnancy, that child presented at a younger age with a diagnosis of diabetes, had measurable deterioration in glucose control, higher blood glucose on oral glucose tolerance tests, had higher HbA1c, and that this was all due to an effect on beta-cell function, not on insulin sensitivity,” Steven D. Chernausek, MD, associate chief of the pediatric diabetes and endocrinology section, the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, told Endocrine Today in an interview. “What we found was that the impact of the mother’s diabetes on the beta cell was only apparent in non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics. It wasn’t apparent in Caucasians, and that was a surprising finding.”
The TODAY study, a large well-controlled study looking at young, well-controlled adolescents with diabetes, was used in this analysis to look specifically at the effect on those patients born to women with diabetes in pregnancy.
Children born to mothers with diabetes had higher HbA1c and fasting blood glucose at baseline (P<.0001), and C-peptide index and oral disposition index, both of which were used as measures of beta-cell function, were decreased (P≤.0001). Pair-wise comparisons showed these effects were only present in non-Hispanic black and Hispanic participants (all P<.01).
“We’ve known for a long time there’s differences in diabetes in Caucasians compared to Hispanics; there are differences of metabolic control,” Chernausek said. “This is another sign that type 2 diabetes is different in the Hispanic, non-Hispanic black populations. It manifests in different ways and they’re susceptible to different things.” — by Katrina Altersitz
For more information:
Chernausek SD. #1655.4. Presented at: the Pediatric Academic Societies and Asian Society for Pediatric Research joint meeting; May 3-6, 2014; Vancouver, British Columbia.
Disclosure: Chernausek reports no relevant financial disclosures