Glycation Endproducts, Soluble Receptor for Advanced Glycation Endproducts and Cytokines in Diabetic and Non-diabetic Pregnancies

Cytokines, advanced glycation end products (AGEs), and their receptor RAGE have been recently suggested to play a role in human pregnancy. In this study, we sought to determine the alterations of plasma AGEs, soluble RAGE (sRAGE), and proinflammatory cytokines in normal pregnancies and those complicated with type 1 diabetes mellitus. These parameters were measured in samples from healthy non-pregnant (C), diabetic non-pregnant (D), healthy pregnant (HP), and pregnant diabetic (DP) women. In the first trimester, DP showed lower sRAGE and higher AGEs compared to HP. In the DP group, significant negative correlations were seen between TNF-alpha and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated Iota L-6 in the first trimester and sRAGE in the third trimester. LPS-stimulated IL-12 was positively correlated with levels of AGEs in the third trimester. We detected several differences in the levels of AGEs, sRAGE, and proinflammatory cytokines between euglycemic and diabetic pregnancies.