Macrophage migration-inhibitory factor is elevated in pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus

Objective: In reports, abnormal macrophage migration-inhibitory factor (MIF) production has been associated with several diseases. Furthermore, despite scarce data, increasing evidence suggest that MIF plays a central role in glucose homeostasis and in the development of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. However, serum MIF levels in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have not yet been investigated. To address this question, we performed a prospective study between a group of pregnant women with GDM and healthy pregnant controls. Materials and methods: GDM group consisted of 43 pregnant women, whereas the control group consisted of 40 healthy pregnant women. In the morning after an overnight fast, venous blood was sampled for the measurement of serum concentrations of insulin and MIF. Serum was separated by centrifugation and immediately stored at -80 degrees C until the assay. Results: There was no significant difference between the groups for maternal characteristics. Women with GDM had significantly higher levels of serum insulin (14.37 +/- 9.92 mu U/ml vs. 8.78 +/- 4.35 mu U/ml; p = 0.001) and serum MIF concentrations (11.31 +/- 4.92 ng/ml vs. 5.31 +/- 4.07 ng/ml; p < 0.001) when compared with healthy pregnant control group. Conclusion: Our data demonstrated that serum levels of MIF are significantly elevated in patients with GDM. Our findings indicate that MIF might have a role in GDM; however, there is a need for further investigation.