Is skin autofluorescence a marker of metabolic memory in pregnant women with diabetes?

Abstract

Aim: To determine whether skin autofluorescence can help to detect those who have previously had abnormal glucose levels among women referred for diabetes during pregnancy.

Methods: Using an advanced glycation end product reader (AGE Reader(tm) (;) DiagnOptics BV, Groningen, the Netherlands), we measured forearm skin autofluorescence at 24-30 weeks of gestation in all women who were referred to our Nutrition Diabetology unit for diabetes during pregnancy.

Results: The study included 230 women (200 with gestational diabetes and 30 with pre-gestational diabetes, of whom 21 had Type 1 and nine had Type 2 diabetes) and a reference group of 22 normoglycaemic non-pregnant women. Skin autofluorescence was significantly higher in women with pre-gestational diabetes (1.97 ± 0.44 arbitary units) compared with gestational diabetes (1.77 ± 0.32 arbitary units; P = 0.003) and lower in the reference group (1.60 ± 0.32 arbitary units; P = 0.009 vs all pregnant women). Among women with gestational diabetes, 71 had a history of hyperglycaemia (i.e. gestational diabetes or macrosomia in a previous pregnancy or discovery of diabetes before 24th gestational week in the present pregnancy). These women had higher levels of skin autofluorescence (1.83 ± 0.35 arbitary units) than women with gestational diabetes without previous history of hyperglycaemia (1.73 ± 0.30 arbitary units; P = 0.04, non-significant, adjusted for age). Skin autofluorescence increased with the number of criteria present for previous hyperglycaemia (P for trend = 0.008) and was significantly associated with having two or three criteria for hyperglycaemia after adjusting for age (P = 0.02).

Conclusions: Skin autofluorescence could reflect previous long-term hyperglycaemia in pregnant women, and could therefore be a marker of metabolic memory.