Environmental News Network - Test Developed by U of T Researchers Could Predict Diabetes in Women Who Had Gestational Form of Illness

Details: By University of Toronto; 22.May

Researchers at the University of Toronto have identified metabolites in the blood that accurately predict whether a woman will develop type 2 diabetes after experiencing a transient form of illness during pregnancy.

Julie Swatson

Researchers at the University of Toronto have identified metabolites in the blood that accurately predict whether a woman will develop type 2 diabetes after experiencing a transient form of illness during pregnancy. This discovery could lead to a test that would help doctors identify patients at greatest risk and help them potentially avert the disease through interventions including diet and exercise.

The research was led by Michael Wheeler, a professor of physiology in U of T’s Faculty of Medicine, in collaboration with Hannes Röst, an assistant professor of molecular genetics and computer science at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, Feihan Dai, a research scientist of physiology and Erica Gunderson, a research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Northern California. Mi Lai, a post-doctoral researcher in Wheeler’s group performed much of the analyses.

“There is a metabolic dysregulation that occurs in the group of women that will go on to develop type 2 diabetes that is present in the early postpartum period, suggesting that there is an underlying problem that exists already and we can detect it,” says Wheeler, who is also a senior scientist at Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, part of the University Health Network.

The identified metabolic signature can predict with over 85 per cent accuracy if a woman will develop type 2 diabetes, as described in a study published in the journal PloS Medicine.

Magazine menu

Test Developed by U of T Researchers Could Predict Diabetes in Women Who Had Gestational Form of Illness