Fig. 1

Predictive and diagnostic biomarkers for GDM pregnancies. GDM usually develops from the 2nd trimester of pregnancy in correlation with increased inflammation, insulin resistance, placental dysregulation and/or β-cell disruption, and can be detected at the 24th–28th week by evaluation of glucose homeostasis. However, some specific protein (blue lines), miRs (black lines) and metabolites (red lines) are released into the blood and/or urine from early stages of (complicated) pregnancies and could serve as biomarkers for GDM. In particular, RBP4, SHBG, afamin, FABP4, hs-PCR, adiponectin and several miRs (miR-16-5p, -17-5p, -20a-5p) could be tested at the beginning of pregnancies, mainly in women with risk factors (obesity, advanced aged, previous GDM). In addition, visfatin, fetuin-A, omentin, leptin, ficolin-3 and specific metabolites (i.e., AHBA, L-Tryp) may be useful for the mid-stage of gestation, and FGF-21, PAI-1, fetuin-B and follistatin, and other metabolites [Ceramide (d18:0/23:0), aspartame] could help GDM screening at the 3rd trimester. Then, early interventions on metabolic and cardiovascular abnormalities could attenuate associated post-parturition (perinatal, neonatal and chronic) disorders in women and offspring