[Inflammatory factors in periodontitis patients and their effects toward the occurrence of gestational diabetes mellitus: a case-control study].

Objective: To explore the effects of periodontitis and inflammatory factors toward the occurrence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Methods: Pregnant women who came to the Department of Obstetrics, Northwest Women's and Children's Hospital for prenatal examinations during March to November of 2021 were invited to participate in this study. Participants with GDM who met the inclusion criteria (n=100) were assigned into the case group; while healthy participants (n=100) were assigned into the control group. Information of participants from the two groups were collected by questionnaires and periodontal statuses were clinically recorded in the meantime. Gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) and venous blood were also collected from participants of two groups to analyze the expression levels of inflammatory factors like C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and IL-33. Factors different between the two groups were included in the multivariate regression analysis model to determine the risk factors of GDM. Results: The age of participants was (33.4±5.1) years in case group and (30.5±4.5) years in control group respectively, which had statistical differences (t=4.33,P<0.001). Besides, the body mass index of participants from case group was also significantly higher than control group [(28.11±3.85) kg/m2 vs. (23.31±3.15) kg/m2, t=9.65, P<0.001]. Participants with GDM had more adverse periodontal clinical parameters. Prevalence of periodontitis in GDM group was 47.0% (47/100) compared with 29.0% (29/100) in control group (χ²=6.88, P=0.009). Multivariate regression analysis results indicated that periodontitis was a critical risk factor for the occurrence of GDM (OR=1.882, P<0.001). Besides, GCF IL-8, serum TNF-α, IL-8 and IL-10 were also risk factors of GDM due to their higher expressions. Among them, TNF-α in serum (OR=2.077) and IL-8 in serum (OR=2.060) had more significant impacts (P<0.001). Conclusions: This study demonstrated that periodontitis was associated with the occurrence of GDM. Up-regulation of serum pro-inflammatory mediators leaded by local periodontal inflammatory microenvironment might play a critical role in this pathological process.