Foetal Congenital heart defects associated with mother’s diabetes type 2

Emobileclinic Researchers’ corner

Emobileclinic Reporter: Dr. Tomi Orungbe

Women with Type 2 diabetes mellitus may give birth to a baby with congenital heart defect as revealed in a study. The lead author Yanqing WuX and colleagues from Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, Baltimore, MD ” induces congenital heart defects in murine embryos by increasing oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress and apoptosis” in a mouse.

According to center for disease and control ”congenital heart defects (CHDs) are the most common type of birth defect .As medical care and treatment have advanced, babies with a CHD are living longer and healthier lives.CHDs are present at birth and can affect the structure of a baby’s heart and the way it works. They can affect how blood flows through the heart and out to the rest of the body. CHDs can vary from mild (such as a small hole in the heart) to severe (such as missing or poorly formed parts of the heart). About 1 in 4 babies born with a heart defect has a critical CHD (also known as critical congenital heart disease).Babies with a critical CHD need surgery or other procedures in the first year of life”.

 The researchers used mouse  in the study as published on American Journal of Obstetric & Gynecology where they  grouped the female mice into two. One was fed with high – fat diet. This also means that highly fat food should be avoided in pregnancy. Fat constituted 60% of the mice diet, while the other group was fed with 10% of fat .After 15 weeks, the highly fat fed mice ” showed characteristics of maternal type 2 diabetes mellitus”. The researchers went ahead to consummate the two groups with a health mice without high fat . ”At E12.5, embryonic hearts were harvested to determine the levels of lipid peroxides and superoxide, ER stress markers, cleaved caspase 3 and 8, and apoptosis. E17.5 embryonic hearts were harvested for the detection of congenital heart defect formation using India Ink vessel patterning and histological examination,” they said.

 Their results show that maternal type 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus are strongly associated with high rates of severe structural birth defects, including congenital heart defects. The authors concluded that ”similar to those observations in type 1 diabetic embryopathy, maternal type 2 diabetes mellitus causes heart defects in the developing embryo manifested with oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and excessive apoptosis in heart cells”.