Expression Of Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Regulator In Placenta Of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

ObjectiveTo examine the difference in the expression of cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator(CFTR) in normal and gestational diabetes mellitus(GDM) placentas and its relation to the pathogenesis of GDM.MethodsPlacental tissues were collected from women who had non-complicated full term deliveries and patients who had deliveries complicated by GDM at Shanghai First People's Hospital. The normal pregnant women are the control group and GDM are the experimental group. In the GDM group, GDMA1 was a subgroup without using insulin to control blood glucose and GDMA2 was the other subgroup with insulin. At the same time,we collected the clinical data of patients in our experiment and the pregnancy outcomes were analyzed.The expression of CFTR in normal and GDM placentas was determined by immunohistochemistry, Western Blot and real-time PCR.ResultsOur studies showed the localization of CFTR in the apical membrane of trophoblast cells in normal and GDM placentas. In GDM placentas, the protein expression levels of CFTR in GDM placentas were markedly lower than those in normal(12.27±0.18 and 78.17±1.14 vs 14.23±0.37 and 90.62±2.38, P<0.01). However, there is no difference of expressions of CFTR in GDMA1 and GDMA2 placentas(12.44±0.23 and 79.25±1.56 vs 12.10±0.27 and 77.08±1.72, P>0.05). The m RNA expression levels of CFTR in GDM placentas were half of those in normal(0.495,P<0.01). But The m RNA expression of CFTR in GDMA1 and GDMA2 were not significantly different(0.565 vs 0.37,P>0.05).ConclusionsThe expression of CFTR is significantly reduced in GDM placentas compared with normal placentas and the decrease of CFTR may lead to GDM.