Investigating the Effects of Serum Vitamin E level on Normal Pregnancy and Gestational Diabetes

“Gestational Diabetes” is carbohydrate intolerance with different severity which is firstly initiated or identified in the pregnancy. There are some evidences regarding the relationship between Mellitus diabetes and the serum vitamin E level. The researches in this filed have come to different conclusions. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of serum vitamin E level (α-tocopherol) in the women suffering from gestational diabetes in comparison with the normal pregnant women. The present study was performed as a case-control research on 41 women in case group with gestational diabetes (based on carpenter coustan criteria) and 41 healthy pregnant women as control group. The two groups were matched regarding the factors of maternal age، pregnancy age and body mass index (BMI). 5 cc of venous blood has been drawn from each subject and the level of α-tocopherol has been determined through high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC); ultimately، the collected data have been analyzed by T-test and chi-square test. The average level of serum α-tocopherol in the women with gestational diabetes was 6/21±2/69 and 6/92±2/43 in control group which showed no meaningful differences between the two groups (p < 0/05). Regarding the low level of serum α-tocopherol in the women with gestational diabetes in comparison with the healthy pregnant women and due to the possible relationship of gestational diabetes with this vitamin serum level، it can be concluded that the serum level of α-tocopherol can be an indicator of the reduced body anti-oxidant defense.