Association of maternal vitamin c status with gestational diabetes mellitus

Background: the role of antioxidants in the etiology of gestational diabetes mellitus (gdm) has been given limited attention. vitamin c is a nutrient with radical quenching property and has been claimed to influence glucose tolerance. aim: to study the association between vitamin c status (dietary intake and plasma concentrations) and gdm. material and methods: using a case-control design with 1:3 ratio we examined 42 pregnant women with gdm and 158 normal glucose tolerant (ngt) gestational age-matched healthy pregnant women at an average of 26 weeks of gestation. maternal vitamin c intake was determined using detailed semi food frequency questionnaire (sffq) and 24 hour diet recall. plasma vitamin c was determined using a spectrophotometric method in non-fasting samples. gdm was diagnosed by 75 gm oral glucose tolerance test (ogtt) using international association for diabetes in pregnancy study group (iadpsg) criteria (fasting ≥92mg%,1hour ≥180mg%,2 hour ≥153mg %). results: gdm women had lower median intake of vitamin c (35.0 mg/day vs. 66.7; p<0.001) and lower median plasma vitamin c concentration (45.9 µmol/l vs. 95.2; p<0.001) compared to ngt women. plasma vitamin c concentration was inversely related to fasting,1 hour and 2 hour post glucose plasma glucose concentrations (p<0.001). the associations remained significant after adjustment for age,income,pre-pregnancy bmi,and stress. conclusion: our findings suggest that low vitamin c intake as well as low plasma vitamin c concentration is associated with gdm. this association needs to be tested in a large prospective study and subsequently in a clinical trial. © journal of krishna institute of medical sciences university