A study on lymphocyte subpopulation in diabetic mothers at delivery and intheir newborn

Despite the importance of immunological aspects in pregnancy, until now few studies have been reported on the cellular immune modifications of diabeti c pregnancy and on the newborn of diabetic mothers. Therefore, we thought i t of interest to evaluate cell immunity in diabetic pregnant women and in t heir newborn children. Fourteen pregnant women with Type 1 diabetes (T1DM), mean age (+/-SD) 30+/-4 yr, mean disease duration (+/-SD) 12+/-5 yr, 15 wi th gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) (mean age 33+/-6 yr), and 21 healthy pregnant women (mean age 29+/-4 yr) were studied and their metabolic and i mmunological parameters were evaluated. Fifty newborn babies were examined for immunological evaluation. Mean fasting plasma glucose and HbA(1c) value s were higher in T1DM and GDM patients than in controls. Total lymphocyte s ubsets were higher in T1DM and GDM patients, although there were no signifi cant differences between the percentual values. In children of T1DM and GDM mothers absolute lymphocyte values were increased, whereas the natural kil ler (NK) subset had decreased values in both absolute and percentual terms, Our work shows that, with respect to healthy controls, both GDM and T1DM m others have a significant increase in total lymphocytes, and newborns have a reduced number of NK lymphocytes, Lower numbers of NK lymphocytes are pro bably related to altered production of lymphokines during foetal life and m ay also represent a real immune deficit in monitoring against viral infecti ons, (C) 1999, Editrice Kurtis.