Glypican-4 (GPC-4) is an adipokine that has been associated with increasing obesity, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, bone development and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and enhances insulin receptor signaling. Studies had revealed its plasma concentrations elevated and reduced in patients with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes respectively. But the effect of GPC- 4 in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is not well established.

A recently published research in ‘Scientific Reports’ which explored GPC-4 in GDM revealed that GPC-4 levels rose significantly during pregnancy, correlated negatively with fasting insulin and HOMA-IR but might not be related to gestational diabetes mellitus status.

Because of the association of GCP-4 with increased fasting insulin and HOMA-IR, researchers hypothesized that an increase of GPC-4 during pregnancy due to the rising physiological insulin resistance is related to GDM status. 59 pregnant, overweight women from a prospective longitudinal study were selected for the study. The parameters chosen for the study include HbA1c, fasting insulin, fasting glucose, triglycerides (TG), cholesterol, estradiol, osteocalcin, creatinine, uric acid, serum protein, serum albumin, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT).

The results showed that an increase in the GPC-4 is related to fasting insulin, ISSI-2 and HOMA-IR. The analysis also revealed that in contrast to studies on patients with type 2 diabetes, GPC-4 levels were not significantly differ in non-pregnant women with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and GDM. According to the researchers, women in both groups were increasingly insulin resistant due to pregnancy-related changes and overweight, and both these factors influence the GPC-4 level in pregnancy. This study allows a first insight in the potential role of GPC-4 levels in insulin resistance, glucose metabolism and adiposity in pregnancy.

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