EClinicalMedicine<\/a> found that children whose mothers had gestational diabetes during pregnancy were 94 per cent more likely to develop type\u00a01 diabetes compared to children of mothers without diabetes.<\/p>\nAdditionally, researchers found that having a father with type\u00a02 diabetes was linked to a 77 per cent higher risk, adding that there is a possible link between maternal type\u00a02 diabetes and type 1 diabetes in children.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur findings underscore the importance of including family history\u2014not only of type\u00a01 diabetes, but also maternal gestational diabetes and paternal type\u00a02 diabetes\u2014in routine assessments,\u201d says Dr.\u00a0Isabella Albanese, co-first author of the study, who was an endocrinology fellow at The Institute at the time of the study and now is a physician at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and an Assistant Professor at McGill University. \u201cThey empower families and clinicians to seek timely assessments and begin appropriate monitoring sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Dasgupta adds, \u201cThe connections we found between different types of diabetes are intriguing, given that each has distinct biological causes. They support a growing view that behaviours leading to excess weight and insulin resistance\u2014typically linked to type 2 diabetes\u2014may also increase the risk of type\u00a01 diabetes in people whose immune systems are prone to attacking insulin-producing cells.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study is similar to one that was conducted in China in 2019, which found that gestational diabetes was linked to a 66 per cent higher risk of type\u00a01 diabetes in children. <\/p>\n
Researchers believe that this study indicates that there are several possible explanations for their findings, which includes economic, dietary and lifestyle factors that contribute to parental obesity and gestational diabetes may also increase the likelihood of obesity in children.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeveral mechanisms may be at play. Families often share lifestyle and eating habits, which can raise the likelihood that children will be affected. But beyond that, high blood sugar levels may also cause biological changes in parents that could increase their children\u2019s risk of developing type\u00a01 diabetes,\u201d explains Laura Rendon, co-first author of the study, who completed an MSc in experimental medicine at The Institute and, as someone living with type\u00a01 diabetes herself, finds deep personal meaning in conducting this research.<\/p>\n
What is diabetes?<\/p>\n
Diabetes is a condition where glucose or blood sugar levels are too high.<\/p>\n
In type 1 diabetes, the immune system damages the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas\u2014the hormone that helps move blood sugar into cells to provide energy\u2014leaving the body without enough insulin to regulate blood sugar.<\/p>\n
In gestational diabetes and type 2 diabetes, the body does not respond properly to insulin, a condition often linked to excess weight, low physical activity and genetic factors.<\/p>\n
Dr. Dasgupta explains, \u201cWhat is interesting is that type 1 diabetes is a disease of lack of the hormone insulin while gestational diabetes and type 2 diabetes stem mostly from the body\u2019s resistance to the hormone. What may be happening is that genes, environments and behaviours that create insulin resistance may also, in some cases, trigger the immune reactions that lead to type 1 diabetes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recent study at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) has found that children of mothers with gestational…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[200,79],"class_list":["post-112715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-genetics","tag-genetics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}