Significance of cell adhesion molecules profile during pregnancy in gestational diabetes mellitus. A systematic review and meta-analysis

Endothelial dysfunction has been considered as a key etiological factor contributed to the development of vascular disease in diabetes mellitus. Serum level of endothelial cell adhesion molecules (AMs) were reported to be increased in GDM and pregnant women with normal glucose tolerance when compared with nonpregnant women. The literature provides limited evidence of endothelial dysfunction in GDM with heterogeneous and contradictory results respect to their possible involvement in maternal, perinatal and future complications. Our objective is to evaluate current evidence on the role of AMs in maternal and perinatal complications in women with GDM. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus databases were searched. We evaluated the studies' quality using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. Meta-analyses were conducted, and heterogeneity and publication bias were examined. Nineteen relevant studies were finally included, recruiting 765 GDM and 2368 control pregnant women. AMs levels were generally higher in GDM participants showing statistical significance maternal ICAM-1 levels (SMD = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.25 to 0.91; p = 0.001). Our meta-analysis did not detect significant differences in subgroups or in meta-regression analyses. Future studies are needed to establish the potential role of these biomarkers in GDM and its complications.