Invited Speaker

Dietary Fatty Acids In The Management Of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (Gdm) And Macrosomia
Naim Akhtar Khan
France

Epidemiological, clinical and experimental studies have suggested that maternal diabetes during pregnancy, i.e., gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), is an important risk factor for fetal overnutrition and macrosomia (obese offspring). We have reported that the two pathologies are associated with the abnormalities in the lipid profile. Furhermore, tumor necrosis factor (TNF- ) plays a significant role in insulin resistance and in pancreatic β cell damage; therefore, TNF- participates in the pathogenesis of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The inflammatory status of the GDM and macrosomic infants would be another molecular target in these two pathologies. We have focused our recent studies on the nutritional management of these two pathologies. Hence, we have used diets, enriched with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), abundantly present in fish oils. Indeed, the n-3 PUFAs downregulate the production of IFN-γ and IL-2, and upregulate the secretion of anti-inflammatory cytokines. The n-3 PUFAs inhibit the production of TNF- both in vitro and in vivo, which may explain their beneficial effects in GDM. We have also observed that feeding an n-3 PUFAs diet induces a shift in Th1/Th2 ratio to a protective Th2 phenotype in diabetic pregnancy. Feeding an n-3 PUFAs diet also corrected intracellular calcium homeostasis in T-cells of diabetic pregnant dams and their macrosomic obese offspring.