Discovery of metabolic biomarkers for gestational diabetes mellitus in a Chinese population
Abstract Background Metabolomics has provided new insights into the pathology of GDM and has revealed potential biomarkers related to GDM; however, previous findings lack consistency, and systemic analysis of GDM with metabolites is required for providing more clues for GDM diagnosis and mechanism research. This study aims to reveal metabolic differences between normal pregnant women and GDM patients in the second- and third-trimester stages and to confirm the clinical relevance of these new findings.Methods Using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry system, metabolites were quantitated with the serum samples of GDM and normal pregnancies in second- and third-trimester stages in a Chinese population. Samples were obtained from 200 healthy pregnant women and 200 GDM women in the second trimester, 199 normal controls, and 199 GDM patients in the third trimester at the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital. Both function and pathway analyses were applied to find biological roles involved in the two sets of metabolites. We then identified the trimester stage-specific GDM metabolite biomarkers by combining a few machine learning approaches, and the logistic regression models based on selected biomarkers were constructed to evaluate predictive efficiency. Finally, the weighted gene co-expression network analysis method was used to further capture the associations between metabolite modules with biomarkers and clinical indices.Results The associations of metabolites with GDM were evaluated, with 57 differentially expressed metabolites (DEMs) in the second-trimester group and 72 DEMs in the third-trimester group. The DEMs, functions, and pathways showed remarkable differences between second- and third-trimester groups. Thus, stage specific GDM biomarkers were further identified, and the logistic regression models for these metabolite biomarkers achieved the area under the curve values of 0.807 and 0.81 for the second- and third-trimester groups, respectively. The significant associations between the discovered DEMs/biomarkers and GDM-related indices suggest their clinical relevance with GDM and hyperglycemia in pregnant women.Conclusions The present study shows the metabolomics profile in the second- and third-trimester stages in pregnant women with and without GDM. Pathways, DEMs and their associations with GDM related indices have been found. Indeed, further studies are warranted to confirm our findings.