Gestational diabetes: A diabetes predictor in fathers

Gestational diabetes, a type of diabetes that occurs during pregnancy, affects between three and 20 per cent of pregnant women. Those who develop gestational diabetes are 7 times as likely to eventually develop type 2 diabetes in the years following pregnancy. Now, in a large study analyzing 20 years of data from Quebec, a team from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) has demonstrated that gestational diabetes signals future diabetes risk not only in mothers, but also in fathers. The study was recently published in Diabetes Care.

"We observed that the incident of diabetes was 33% greater in men whose partner has gestational diabetes compared with men whose partners did not have gestational diabetes," says the lead author of the study, Dr. Kaberi Dasgupta, endocrinologist at the MUHC and an associate professor of Medicine at McGill University. "This is the first study to demonstrate a link between gestational diabetes in mothers and diabetes incidence in fathers."
Prior studies have shown partners to be similar in their weight and physical activity. Moreover, Dr. Dasgupta's team has shown evidence in a study conducted in 2014 that spousal diabetes was a diabetes risk factor. Then the researchers hypothesized that gestational diabetes in mothers signals a possible diabetes incidence in fathers. Gestational diabetes occurs when couples are in young to middle adulthood. Diabetes risk factors in these years are of high importance as they offer an opportunity for long term prevention.
The researchers randomly selected singleton live births from 1990 to 2007 with a positive diagnosis for gestational diabetes in mothers and matched controls without gestational diabetes from health administrative, birth and death registry data from the province of Quebec. Then, they identified fathers with type 2 diabetes from the time of the mother's post-delivery discharge from the hospital to the father's departure from Quebec, death or end of the study period (March 31, 2012). Overall, 70,890 fathers were evaluated (half with partners with gestational diabetes).
"Our analysis suggests that couples share risk partly because of their shared social and cultural environment, which may contribute to health behaviours and attitudes," explains Dr. Dasgupta. "The study reinforces the findings of our previous study on shared risk for diabetes in spouses, and prior studies indicating that less healthy eating habits and low physical activity could be shared within a household. Our data suggest that gestational diabetes could be leveraged as a tool to enhance diabetes detection and prevention in fathers.''

source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150813123428.htm

Potential biomarker for pre-diabetes discovered

Virginia Tech researchers have identified a biomarker in pre-diabetic individuals that could help prevent them from developing Type II diabetes.

Publishing in Clinical Epigenetics, the researchers discovered that pre-diabetic people who were considered to be insulin resistant -- unable to respond to the hormone insulin effectively -- also had altered mitochondrial DNA.
Researchers made the connection by analyzing blood samples taken from 40 participants enrolled in the diaBEAT-it program, a long-term study run by multiple researchers in the Fralin Translational Obesity Research Center and funded by a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).
Participants did not have diabetes or cardiovascular disease, but were pre-diabetic and showed signs of insulin resistance.
Blood samples revealed participants had lower amounts of mitochondrial DNA with a higher amount of methylation -- a process that can change the expression of genes and mitochondrial copy numbers in cells -- than healthy people.
Mitochondrion is responsible for converting chemical energy from food into energy that cells can use.
"If the body is insulin resistant, or unable to respond properly to insulin, it could affect a person's mitochondrial function and overall energy levels," said Zhiyong Cheng, an assistant professor of human, nutrition, foods, and exercise in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate. "Mitochondrial alterations have previously been observed in obese individuals, but this is the first time we've made the molecular link between insulin resistance and mitochondrial DNA changes."
Cheng and collaborator Fabio Almeida, an assistant professor of human nutrition, foods and exercise in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate, think this link could be important for treating pre-diabetic individuals to prevent Type 2 Diabetes.
According to the NIDDK, more than 2 out of 3 adults are considered overweight and more than 1 out of 3 adults are considered obese. The growing epidemic of obesity is largely attributed to energy overconsumption -- taking in more food calories than the body burns through physical activity.
"There is no known cure for Type 2 diabetes, and early diagnosis and intervention is critical to prevent this disease," said Almeida. "Discovery of the biomarker in obese, pre-diabetic individuals advances our understanding of how diabetes develops and provides evidence important for future diagnosis and intervention."

source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150820125408.htm

Air pollution linked to children low academic achievement

A University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) study on children's health has found that fourth and fifth graders who are exposed to toxic air pollutants at home are more likely to have lower GPAs.

UTEP researchers analyzed academic performance and sociodemographic data for 1,895 fourth and fifth grade children living in El Paso, Texas that were attending the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD).

They used the Environmental Protection Agency's National Air Toxics Assessment to estimate children's exposure to toxic air pollutants, such as diesel exhaust, around the location of their homes.

Children who were exposed to high levels of motor vehicle emissions from cars, trucks and buses on roads and highways were found to have significantly lower GPAs, even when accounting for other factors known to influence school performance. The results of the study were published in the academic journal Population and Environment.

Reference :

1. Stephanie E. Clark-Reyna, Sara E. Grineski, Timothy W. Collins. Residential exposure to air toxics is linked to lower grade point averages among school children in El Paso, Texas, USA. Population and Environment, 2015; DOI: 10.1007/s11111-015-0241-8