Zinc and selenium levels in women with gestational diabetes mellitus at Medani Hospital, Sudan

Abstract

Gestational diabetes is a common medical disorder in pregnancy. There is a growing body of evidence of the association between zinc, selenium status and diabetes mellitus during pregnancy. A case-control study was conducted at Medani Hospital, Sudan, to compare zinc and selenium levels in pregnant women with gestational diabetes and normal pregnant women (controls). The two groups (31 in each arm) were well-matched in age, parity, gestational age, haemoglobin and body mass index. Zinc and selenium levels were measured using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. There were no significant differences in the median (interquartile) zinc (498.9 [395-703] vs 486.4 [404-667] μg/l, p = 0.905) and selenium (164.4 [61-415] vs 204 [68-541] μg/l, p = 0.838) values between the two groups. There were no significant correlations between zinc and selenium, or between these trace elements and body mass index, gestational age and blood glucose levels.

Serum selenium level and gestational diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The characteristics of the studies included in the present meta-analysis are given in Table 1. Of the seven studies included in the meta-analysis, two were carried out in Kuwait [17, 20], one in China [16], one in Italy [18], one in Turkey [19], one in Hungar [22] and one in Sudan [21]. GDM was usually diagnosed during the 24–28 weeks of gestation.…”

“…The definition used for GDM was the criteria proposed by Carpenter and Coustan in three studies [18, 19, 21], and the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria in two studies [20, 22]. Blood samples for selenium measurement were collected in the second [16, 18, 19, 22] and third [16, 17, 20, 21] trimester of gestation. Six studies were case-control [16–18, 20–22], and one cross-sectional design [19].…”

“…The sample size of these studies ranged from 10 to 123. Three of the included studies involved in the GDM women with BMI < 28 kg/m 2 [18, 21, 22], and two with BMI ≥ 28 kg/m 2 [17, 20]. …”

“…When stratifying by geographic site, these studies were classified as the Asian group [16, 17, 20], European group [18, 19, 22], and African group [21]. The three papers carried out in Asia and Europe respectively did present a conclusion of heterogeneity (Asia: P  < 0.00001, I 2  = 95 %; Europe: P  < 0.00001, I 2  = 95 %), and therefore the random effect model was chosen to do pooled analysis.…”

“…In this regard, some studies reported that women with GDM showed lower concentrations of serum selenium than healthy pregnant women [16–19], while Molnar et al showed the contrary [22]. Meanwhile, no significant association between serum selenium and GDM was documented [20, 21]. …”