The Variation of Platelet Function in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) was as glucose intolerance of different severity that onset or first recognition during the current pregnancy. GDM was a special complication of pregency and the most common cause of fetal and maternal mortality and morbidity. The etiology of this disease is not clear. Increased platelet function was common in normal pregnancy or type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients in the last decade. However, when pregnancy plus type 2 DM, that is, the GDM, was the platelet function still changed? In the current study, we tested blood platelet function including platelet counts (PC), mean platelet volume (MPV) and granule membrane protein-140 (GMP-140, also known as P-selectin, CD62P) in pregnant women with GDM. CD62P was a sensitive index to evaluate platelet activation. PC and MPV would alter when platelets had been destructed significantly, so they were sensitive indexes for platelet activation too. PC was (206.02±60.23)×10⁹/L in GDM, (228.76±56.24)×10⁹/L in normal pregnancy, (219.76±58.14)×10⁹/L in type 2 DM without pregnancy. MPV was 9.53±1.64fl in GDM, 8.74±1.59fl in normal pregnancy, 9.16±1.23fl in type 2 DM without pregnancy. The PC and MPV had no significant difference among GDM, normal pregnancy and type 2 DM without pregnancy (P>0.05). The expression of CD62P was higher than that of normal pregnancy or type 2 DM (41.82±12.95% vs. 26.21±7.09% or 24.18±8.79% P<0.05). These results indicate that there were much more platelet activation in GDM compared with normal pregnancy or type 2 DM, but the platelet destruction was not increased. Inhibition of activated platelet may be a new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of GDM. However, whether there was special role affecting platelet activation directly in GDM was unknown. The concrete mechanism underlying GDM platelet dysfunction need more elucidated.