Objective: To evaluate patterns of insulin secretion in pregnancy and analyze the association between insulin patterns and risks of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Methods: A prospective study was conducted to collect and analyze pregnant women's materials from January 2015 to December 2018. Pregnant women were grouped according to results of 75-g oral glucose tolerance test at 24-28 weeks of pregnancy: normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and GDM. Insulin secretion patterns were based on the time of peak(s) and shape of insulin secretion curve. The relationship between insulin secretion patterns and pregnant outcomes was analyzed. Results: A total of 2432 pregnant women met the inclusion criteria during the study period. Among them, 737 (30.3%) women were grouped as GDM and 1695 (69.7%) as NGT. Type I insulin secretion represented the early phase of insulin secretion (peak time at 30 or 60 minutes), while type II represented the delayed peak of insulin secretion (peak time at 120 or 180 minutes). Logistic regression analysis showed that type II insulin secretion was a risk factor of pre-eclampsia, large-for-gestational-age, and neonatal hypoglycemia. Conclusion: The delayed insulin peak is a useful marker for risk of GDM and adverse pregnant outcomes in women with GDM.

Spiral-artery (SA) remodeling is a fundamental process during pregnancy that involves the action of cells of the initial vessel, such as vascular smooth-muscle cells (VSMCs) and endothelial cells, but also maternal immune cells and fetal extravillous trophoblast cells (EVTs). Mast cells (MCs), and specifically chymase-expressing cells, have been identified as key to a sufficient SA-remodeling process in vivo. However, the mechanisms are still unclear. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of the MC line HMC-1 and recombinant human chymase (rhuCMA1) on human primary uterine vascular smooth-muscle cells (HUtSMCs), a human trophoblast cell line (HTR8/SV-neo), and human umbilical-vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) in vitro. Both HMC-1 and rhuCMA1 stimulated migration, proliferation, and changed protein expression in HUtSMCs. HMC-1 increased proliferation, migration, and changed gene expression of HTR8/SVneo cells, while rhuCMA treatment led to increased migration and decreased expression of tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases. Additionally, rhuCMA1 enhanced endothelial-cell-tube formation. Collectively, we identified possible mechanisms by which MCs/rhuCMA1 promote SA remodeling. Our findings are relevant to the understanding of this crucial step in pregnancy and thus of the dysregulated pathways that can lead to pregnancy complications such as fetal growth restriction and preeclampsia.

A fiber optic temperature and strain sensor using dual Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) is proposed. The dual MZIs were fabricated by fusion splicing of two different fibers between two single-mode fibers. The two fibers of thin-core fiber and small-cladding polarization maintaining fiber were fusion spliced with a core offset. As the responses of the two MZIs are different in terms of temperature and strain, simultaneous temperature and strain measurement were experimentally validated by selecting two resonant dips in the transmission spectrum to construct a matrix. Experimental results show that the proposed sensors had the maximum temperature sensitivity of 66.67 pm/°C and the maximum strain sensitivity of −2.0pm/µε. The minimum discriminated temperature and strain of the two proposed sensors were 0.20°C and 0.71 µε, and 0.33°C and 0.69 µε, respectively. The proposed sensor has promising application prospects due to the merits of ease of fabrication, low costs, and good resolution.