ReviewDiabetologia2016
The fetal glucose steal: an underappreciated phenomenon in diabetic pregnancy.
Review in Diabetologia, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 90 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
90 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 206 citations in OpenAlex.
- Early-Onset Versus Late-Onset Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Maternal, Perinatal and Neonatal Outcomes.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2026Pooled it
- Folic Acid Supplementation and Risk of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review of the Literature.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Global burden of early pregnancy gestational diabetes mellitus (eGDM): A systematic review.Acta diabetologica · 2022Pooled it
- Lifestyle intervention during pregnancy in patients with gestational diabetes mellitus and the risk of neonatal hypoglycemia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Pooled it
- Fasting Compared With Fed and Oral Intake Before the 1-Hour Oral Glucose Tolerance Test: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Obstetrics and gynecology · 2023Trial
- Postprandial Triglycerides Predict Newborn Fat More Strongly than Glucose in Women with Obesity in Early Pregnancy.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2018Trial
- Beyond Deterministic Fetal Programming: Intrauterine Exposures and the Multifactorial Origins of Adiposity.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Review
- Maternal obesity and the metabolic syndrome in reproductive health: assessing incretin-based interventions.Reviews in endocrine & metabolic disorders · 2026Review
- Reversal of canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway attenuates gestational diabetes mellitus-induced offspring cardiac hypertrophy: mechanistic insights into pathological remodeling.Nutrition & diabetes · 2026Article
- Umbilical cord blood markers predict neonatal hypoglycemia in full-term small and large for gestational age infants.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Transient fetal hyperglycemia reprograms adipogenesis, lipogenesis, and insulin signaling in zebrafish.Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie · 2026Article
- Advanced Hybrid Closed Loop Systems in Pregnancy: A Retrospective Study of Women With Type 1 Diabetes.Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism · 2026Article
- Medical nutrition therapy in physiological pregnancy and in pregnancy complicated by obesity and/or diabetes: SID-AMD recommendations.Acta diabetologica · 2026Article
- Chrono-Nutrition in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: Implications of Meal Timing and Nutrient Distribution for Glycemic Control.Nutrients · 2026Review
- First-trimester two-hour post-challenge glucose and HbA1c as early predictors of gestational diabetes mellitus: A prospective cohort study.The Indian journal of medical research · 2026Review
- Hyperglycemia during the first 1000 days as a driver of metabolic programming.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Review
- Association of menarche age with macrosomia and modified effect from dietary pattern: findings from the Chinese pregnant women.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- GDM modified the associations of gestational weight gain with pregnancy outcomes: a population-based cohort study.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Article
- Maternal and neonatal outcomes according to the timing of diagnosis of gestational diabetes: A critical appraisal.World journal of diabetes · 2025Review
30 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Adverse neonatal outcomes continue to be high for mothers with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and are far from eliminated in mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus. This is often despite seemingly satisfactory glycaemic control in the latter half of pregnancy. Here we argue that this could be a consequence of the early establishment of fetal hyperinsulinaemia, a driver that exaggerates the fetal glucose steal. Essentially, fetal hyperinsulinaemia, through its effect on lowering fetal glycaemia, will increase the glucose concentration gradient across the placenta and consequently the glucose flux to the fetus. While the steepness of this gradient and glucose flux will be greatest at times when maternal hyperglycaemia and fetal hyperinsulinaemia coexist, fetal hyperinsulinaemia will favour a persistently high glucose flux even at times when maternal blood glucose is normal. The obvious implication is that glycaemic control needs to be optimised very early in pregnancy to prevent the establishment of fetal hyperinsulinaemia, further supporting the need for pre-pregnancy planning and early establishment of maternal glycaemic control. An exaggerated glucose steal by a hyperinsulinaemic fetus could also attenuate maternal glucose levels during an OGTT, providing an explanation for why some mothers with fetuses with all the characteristics of diabetic fetopathy have 'normal' glucose tolerance.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.