Maternal insulin resistance changes pancreas development, increases risk of metabolic disorders in offspring
According to researchers from the Joslin Diabetes Center and the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, “Since insulin resistance alters the metabolic status in the affected individuals, its presence in women during pregnancy has the potential to be detrimental to growth and metabolism in the offspring. Thus, insulin resistance directly impacts pregnant women and also their offspring.” The research team — which included Sevim Kahraman, Ercument Dirice, Dario DeJesus, Jiang Hu and Rohit Kulkarni — used a mouse model of insulin resistance to find out how it affects metabolism and endocrine pancreas development in the offspring. Insulin is a hormone created in the beta cells (β-cells) of the pancreas. …