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To conduct the study, the researchers enrolled 958 women with mild gestational diabetes. Roughly half were treated for their diabetes and half were not, receiving only standard pregnancy care.

In their statistical analysis of the study results, the researchers combined several serious potential outcomes into one figure, to represent a single and primary outcome. The primary outcome consisted of all cases of newborn death, stillbirth, newborns with low blood sugar or with high insulin levels, birth-related injuries, and high bilirubin levels (an indicator of newborn jaundice). In terms of the primary outcome, there were no differences between the two groups of women. But the women who received treatment fared significantly better than the untreated women on other measures.

Specifically, compared to women who did not receive treatment, those who did were:
half as likely to have an unusually large baby,
half as likely to experience shoulder dystocia during childbirth,
four-fifths as likely to give birth by cesarean section, and
three-fifths as likely to develop high blood pressure or preeclampsia.

“Obstetricians are concerned with the immediate risks of birth trauma which may accompany delivery of large infants to women with diabetes,” Dr. Landon said.

These risks include fracture of the skull and collar bones, and injury to the nerves that connect the arm, hand and shoulder to the spine.

“Our study demonstrates that treating even mild diabetes can reduce fetal overgrowth and thus could also reduce these birth related risks.”

Previous studies suggest that the higher birthweights and greater proportion of body fat seen in the newborns of women with gestational diabetes also pose increased health risks for these children later in life, Dr. Spong said. The children are more likely than other children to be overweight and, as adults, more likely to have impaired glucose tolerance, a prediabetic condition.

“The children would need to be followed long term to be certain, but it’s possible that treating women with mild gestational diabetes to reduce birthweight and body fat among their newborns may benefit these children later in life,” Dr. Spong said.

A National Institutes of Health network study provided the first conclusive evidence that treating pregnant women who have even the mildest form of gestational diabetes can reduce the risk of common birth complications among infants, as well as blood pressure disorders among mothers.

Treatment of severe gestational diabetes is known to benefit mothers and infants. Although treatment is routinely prescribed for all women with gestational diabetes, before the current study, there was no evidence to show whether treating the mild form of the condition benefited, or posed risks for, mothers or their infants.

The researchers found that, compared to the women’s untreated counterparts, women treated for mild gestational diabetes had smaller, leaner babies less likely to be overweight or abnormally large, and less likely to experience shoulder dystocia, an emergency condition in which the baby’s shoulder becomes lodged inside the mother’s body during birth. Treated mothers were also less likely to undergo cesarean delivery, to develop high blood pressure during pregnancy, or to develop preeclampsia, a life-threatening complication of pregnancy that can lead to maternal seizures and death.

The study was conducted by researchers in the Maternal Fetal Medicine Units Network of the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human (NICHD) and appears in the Oct. 1 New England Journal of Medicine. The study’s first author was Mark Landon of Ohio State University.

“Whether to treat mild gestational diabetes has never been entirely clear,” said study coauthor Catherine Y. Spong, chief of the Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch at the NICHD. “The study results show conclusively that both mothers and infants do better when gestational diabetes is controlled.”

In addition to funding from the NICHD, the study was also supported by the NIH’s National Center for Research Resources.

Gestational diabetes occurs when pregnant women who did not have any signs or symptoms of diabetes before they were pregnant develop high blood sugar levels. The condition affects from 1 to 14 percent of all U.S. pregnancies. Gestational diabetes is not well understood, but is thought to occur when hormones produced during pregnancy interfere with the body’s ability to use insulin to absorb sugar from the blood.

In most cases, treatment for gestational diabetes consists of lowering blood sugar levels through proper diet and exercise. If diet and exercise alone fail to lower blood sugar levels, women may be treated with drugs that increase the body’s ability to use insulin, or may be prescribed insulin itself.

The current study is the first to test whether treatment for mild gestational diabetes is beneficial. The researchers defined mild gestational diabetes as having normal blood sugar levels after fasting but abnormally high levels in at least two readings over the course of three hours after an oral glucose tolerance test, in which women consume a sugary drink. Severe diabetes was defined as high blood sugar levels even after fasting.

The results reveal that more than one gene is involved in the development of male hair-loss. These results also throw interesting light on the inheritance of baldness in that hitherto the only known risk gene for the androgen receptor lay on the X-chromosome, and was thus inherited from the mother – which accounts for the fact that in the case of hair-loss men often take after their maternal grandfathers. However, the newly discovered gene lies on chromosome 20, and can be inherited from both the mother and the father. “This helps to provide an explanation for the similarity between father and son”, declares Professor Nöthen.

The research conducted by Professor Nöthen and Dr. Kruse is being supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Prof. Nöthen occupies the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Chair for Genetic Medicine. The Life & Brain Zentrum is a new research centre of the University Clinic in Bonn, which is dedicated to practically orientated research into the causes of disease.

Wash away your gray? Maybe. A team of European scientists have finally solved a mystery that has perplexed humans throughout the ages: why we turn gray. Despite the notion that gray hair is a sign of wisdom, these researchers show that wisdom has nothing to do with it.

Going gray is caused by a massive build up of hydrogen peroxide due to wear and tear of our hair follicles. The peroxide winds up blocking the normal synthesis of melanin, our hair’s natural pigment.

“Not only blondes change their hair color with hydrogen peroxide,” said Gerald Weissmann, MD, Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. “All of our hair cells make a tiny bit of hydrogen peroxide, but as we get older, this little bit becomes a lot. We bleach our hair pigment from within, and our hair turns gray and then white. This research, however, is an important first step to get at the root of the problem, so to speak.”

The researchers made this discovery by examining cell cultures of human hair follicles. They found that the build up of hydrogen peroxide was caused by a reduction of an enzyme that breaks up hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen (catalase). They also discovered that hair follicles could not repair the damage caused by the hydrogen peroxide because of low levels of enzymes that normally serve this function (MSR A and B). Further complicating matters, the high levels of hydrogen peroxide and low levels of MSR A and B, disrupt the formation of an enzyme (tyrosinase) that leads to the production of melanin in hair follicles. Melanin is the pigment responsible for hair color, skin color, and eye color. The researchers speculate that a similar breakdown in the skin could be the root cause of vitiligo.

“As any blue-haired lady will attest, sometimes hair dyes don’t quite work as anticipated,” Weissmann added. “This study is a prime example of how basic research in biology can benefit us in ways never imagined.”