Gestational diabetes mellitus as a risk factor for neuropsychiatric pathology in offspring

This review article summarizes current ideas about gestational diabetes mellitus as an independent risk factor for long-term neuropsychiatric morbidity in offspring. Herein, we describe the genetic programming patterns of morphofunctional brain development during intrauterine life, which provide the basis for short- and long-term functions of the central nervous system. The results of experimental and clinical studies are presented that explain the pathophysiological mechanisms of the harmful effects on the fetal brain of hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, hyperlepthyremia, oxidative stress, and systemic inflammation in the mother with pregnancy complicated by diabetes mellitus. We also discuss structural brain abnormalities and neuropsychiatric consequences. The article substantiates the need for the prevention of neuropsychiatric diseases in the offspring of women with obesity and other concomitant pathology at the stage of family planning, and at the onset of pregnancy, the expediency of early screening, treatment of gestational diabetes mellitus and neuroprotection in the perinatal period of the child’s life.