Studies have demonstrated that both glutathione disulfide and GSH are substrates for MRP1

ular complications. For instance, GDM mothers exhibit higher mean arterial pressure and increased carotid intimamedia thickness in addition to increased circulating levels of pro-atherogenic markers such as TNF-, hsCRP, IL-6 and PAI-1. Among these, IMT is positively correlated with glucose intolerance and hypertension. In the current study we observed increased adherence of peripheral blood derived leukocytes to HUVECs derived from Asian Indian GDM cords even in absence of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the culture medium, thereby reflecting enhanced endothelial TSU 68 inflammation in foetal vasculature. This was accompanied by a parallel increase in mRNA and surface expression of E-selectin on HUVECs derived from GDM subjects. This observation is consistent with an earlier finding reporting association of increased circulating levels of soluble E-selectin with early cardiovascular risk in GDM women. It should be noted that endothelial inflammation triggers initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. To the best of our knowledge, we report for the first time increased adherence of leukocytes to HUVECs isolated from Asian Indian gestational diabetic women. Presence of high glucose in GDM subjects may be involved in endothelial inflammation, as there are reports of association of high maternal glucose with complications like Chorioamnionitis, an inflammation of the foetal membranes. Obesity is one of the major causes of gestational diabetes and endothelial inflammation. However, in the current study all recruited subjects were non-obese as the maternal weights were way below the cut off mark of 90 kg which is used as a screening parameter for determining obesity in pregnancy as per guidelines of NICE,UK and report on European study. Maternal weight >90kg also results in development of macrosomia in foetus however, we did not observe macrosomia in newborns born to GDM mothers in the current study. We observed a significant increase for sTie2 levels and arginase activity in cord blood serum of GDM women, while the levels of angiogenic factors were unaltered. Among the angiopoietins, Ang-1 negatively correlated with gene and surface expression of E-selectin. This 4 Sub-Clinical Inflammation in Gestational Diabetes doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0084546.g002 5 Sub-Clinical Inflammation in Gestational Diabetes doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0084546.g003 is in accordance with the ability of Ang-1 to inhibit VEGF induced expression of E-selectin as already reported. The exact reason behind the increased levels of sTie2 in cord serum could be either the shredding of extracellular domain of the Tie2 receptor due to increased proteolytic activity of MMPs or due to Golgi mediated release of stored pool of Tie2. It should be noted that human placental tissue expresses Tie2 receptor and angiopoietins, with inflammatory mediators and hyperglycemia enhancing its release from the feto-placental endothelial cells and trophoblasts via induction of MMP2, MMP9 and MT1-MMP activities. Additionally hyperglycemia is reported to decrease the expression of tissue inhibitor of MMPs i.e. TIMP-2 in trophoblast cells. Although, the exact effect of high levels of sTie-2 in cord blood is presently unknown, it should be noted that it inhibits angiogenesis by limiting the actions of Ang-1 in order to induce vessel destabilization. Soluble Tie2 is also found to reduce 2435173 14557281 angiogenesis in uremic rats. It is hence tempting to speculate that increased sTie2 levels in cord blood serum may also