A recent study at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) has found that children of mothers with gestational diabetes or fathers with type 2 diabetes are more likely to develop type 1 diabetes.
“In Canada, a quarter of children with type 1 diabetes are diagnosed late, often presenting with diabetic ketoacidosis—a life-threatening but preventable condition,” says senior author Dr. Kaberi Dasgupta, Senior Scientist in the Metabolic Disorders and Complications Program at The Institute.
“Since population-wide or genetic screening for early detection hasn’t yet proven cost-effective, it’s crucial that we identify clear, accessible risk factors to accelerate type 1 diabetes detection.”
The study, which was published in EClinicalMedicine found that children whose mothers had gestational diabetes during pregnancy were 94 per cent more likely to develop type 1 diabetes compared to children of mothers without diabetes.
Additionally, researchers found that having a father with type 2 diabetes was linked to a 77 per cent higher risk, adding that there is a possible link between maternal type 2 diabetes and type 1 diabetes in children.
“Our findings underscore the importance of including family history—not only of type 1 diabetes, but also maternal gestational diabetes and paternal type 2 diabetes—in routine assessments,” says Dr. Isabella Albanese, co-first author of the study, who was an endocrinology fellow at The Institute at the time of the study and now is a physician at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and an Assistant Professor at McGill University. “They empower families and clinicians to seek timely assessments and begin appropriate monitoring sooner.”
Dr. Dasgupta adds, “The connections we found between different types of diabetes are intriguing, given that each has distinct biological causes. They support a growing view that behaviours leading to excess weight and insulin resistance—typically linked to type 2 diabetes—may also increase the risk of type 1 diabetes in people whose immune systems are prone to attacking insulin-producing cells.”
The study is similar to one that was conducted in China in 2019, which found that gestational diabetes was linked to a 66 per cent higher risk of type 1 diabetes in children.
Researchers believe that this study indicates that there are several possible explanations for their findings, which includes economic, dietary and lifestyle factors that contribute to parental obesity and gestational diabetes may also increase the likelihood of obesity in children.
“Several mechanisms may be at play. Families often share lifestyle and eating habits, which can raise the likelihood that children will be affected. But beyond that, high blood sugar levels may also cause biological changes in parents that could increase their children’s risk of developing type 1 diabetes,” explains Laura Rendon, co-first author of the study, who completed an MSc in experimental medicine at The Institute and, as someone living with type 1 diabetes herself, finds deep personal meaning in conducting this research.
Diabetes is a condition where glucose or blood sugar levels are too high.
In type 1 diabetes, the immune system damages the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas—the hormone that helps move blood sugar into cells to provide energy—leaving the body without enough insulin to regulate blood sugar.
In gestational diabetes and type 2 diabetes, the body does not respond properly to insulin, a condition often linked to excess weight, low physical activity and genetic factors.
Dr. Dasgupta explains, “What is interesting is that type 1 diabetes is a disease of lack of the hormone insulin while gestational diabetes and type 2 diabetes stem mostly from the body’s resistance to the hormone. What may be happening is that genes, environments and behaviours that create insulin resistance may also, in some cases, trigger the immune reactions that lead to type 1 diabetes.”