Comparative Effects of Metformin and Insulin on Stereological Studies and Immunohistochemistry of Placenta
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2019-08-07
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic disorder characterized by high blood glucose level
mainly due to defect in insulin secretion or resistance. In pregnancy, insulin resistance
increases as the pregnancy advances, due to the placental hormones predisposing the female to
gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Placenta is a vital organ as it provides nutrition to
the fetus. It shows morphological changes in patients with GDM leading to feto-maternal
complications. Insulin, a traditional treatment given for GDM is also known to cause intra
uterine deaths, stillbirths and hypoglycemia in mothers and newborns. Insulin being anabolic
hormone makes placenta larger in size and causes hypoxic changes with vascular insufficiency,
infarctions and hemorrhages. In contrast to this, oral insulin sensitizing drug Metformin, is
euglycemic in nature. It has been proven now that Metformin is a vasculo-protective agent,
with better patient compliance and beneficial micro-vascular effects in type 2 diabetics.
This study was designed to clearly visualize in detail if there are any unrevealed beneficial
vascular effects of Metformin on placental tissues and also to compare these effects with
Insulin and diet restriction therapy, by doing placental light microscopy, morphometric
studies and immunohistochemistry.