Oxidant–Antioxidant Status in Gestational Diabetes Patients
235-238
Correspondence
Surapaneni K M. Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Dr. Pinnamaneni Siddhartha Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Foundation, Chinoutpally, Gannavaram (Mandal)-521286, A.P, India. E-mail: krishnamohan_surapaneni@yahoo.com
The exact pro-oxidant and antioxidant status in gestational diabetes is still not clear. To add a new insight to the question, erythrocyte antioxidant glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in erythrocytes and plasma glutathione–S–transferase (GST) activity were estimated in patients with gestational diabetes and compared to controls. Statistical analysis between controls and patients was performed by the unpaired t-test using the stat-view package. It was observed that there was a significantly lower erythrocyte GSH levels (9.6 ± 6.1 vs. 16.8 ± 5.9 mg/g of Hb, p = 0.0005) and plasma GST activity (3.1 ± 1.3 vs. 10.3 ± 2.3 micromoles/dl of plasma, p < 0.0001) in patients with gestational diabetes when compared to controls. There was a significantly higher erythrocyte MDA levels in patients with gestational diabetes when compared to controls (21.0 ± 4.7 vs. 10.3 ± 2.7, p < 0.001). The results of our study suggests that there was higher oxygen free radical production, as evidenced by higher MDA and lower GSH, supporting the hypothesis that there is increased oxidative stress in patients with gestational diabetes and the decreased GST activity supports the decreased detoxification capacity in pregnancy-complicated diabetes.