BackgroundGestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a disease often manifests in mid to late pregnancy with symptoms including hyperglycemia, insulin resistance and fetal mal-development. The C57BL/KsJ-Lepdb/+ (db/+) mouse is a genetic GDM model that closely mimicked human GDM symptoms. Resveratrol (RV) is a naturally existing compound that has been reported to exhibit beneficial effects in treating type-2 diabetes.MethodsIn this study, we investigated the effect of RV on the pregnant db/+ GDM mouse model, and the underlying molecular mechanism.ResultsRV greatly improved glucose metabolism, insulin tolerance and reproductive outcome of the pregnant db/+ females. Moreover, we found that RV relieved GDM symptoms through enhancing AMPK activation, which in turn reduced production and activity of glucose-6-phosphatase in both pregnant db/+ females and their offspring.ConclusionsOur findings further supported the potential therapeutic effect of RV on not only diabetes, but also alleviating GDM.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12958-015-0114-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.