Fetal pancreatic Langerhans islets size in pregnancies with metabolic disorders

Objective: Metabolic disorders are a pandemic and increasing health problem. Women of childbearing age may also be affected, thus an abnormal metabolism may interfere with pregnancy short- and long-term outcomes, harming both mother and child. In the context of an abnormal maternal and intrauterine metabolic milieu the development of fetal organs, including pancreas, may be affected.

Aim: To investigate the effects of pregnancy metabolic disorders on the morphology of pancreatic Langerhans islets in human late-third trimester stillborn fetuses.

Methods: Samples from fetal pancreas underwent a quantitative histological evaluation to detect differences between pregnancy with (cases, n = 9) or without (controls, n = 6) abnormal metabolism.

Results: Results show that the islets size increases in fetuses from dysmetabolic pregnancies and that this increment is related to both beta-cell hyperplasia and hypertrophy. Moreover, according to pregnancy and fetal metabolic disorders, a threshold of abnormal size of the islets has been identified. Above this threshold the size of fetal pancreatic Langerhans islets should be considered excessively increased.

Conclusion: The study suggests that an accurate fetal pancreas analysis supplies an important tool in stillborn fetus, to discover metabolic disturbances that should be kept in mind and managed in future pregnancies.