Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a condition where high blood sugar develops during pregnancy. GDM is one of the major preventable causes of stillbirth. Currently in the UK, women are selected for diagnostic testing for GDM based on risk factors such as obesity. Better methods for the prediction of GDM are needed.

Ulla Sovio and colleagues developed a new predictive test for GDM using metabolomic markers from maternal serum samples, measured at multiple stages of pregnancy. The test was developed using samples from the Pregnancy Outcome Prediction (POP) study and it was externally validated in maternal plasma samples from a demographically highly dissimilar Born in Bradford (BiB) study. Further assessment in the POP study suggested that the predictive ability of a model including the metabolomic markers was clearly better compared to using early pregnancy obesity alone. This study is a further example of an application of metabolomics to identify novel associations with human disease which are consistent across diverse populations.

Sovio U, Clayton GL, Cook E, Gaccioli F, Charnock-Jones DS, Lawlor DA, Smith GCS. Metabolomic identification of a novel, externally validated predictive test for gestational diabetes mellitus. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2022.