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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.

Sec. Clinical Diabetes

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1616668

This article is part of the Research TopicRecent Advances in Gestational Diabetes: Diagnosis, Treatment and PreventionView all 10 articles

Monochorionic-specific association between first-trimester serum ferritin and gestational diabetes in twin pregnancies: a retrospective cohort study

Provisionally accepted
Yanyan  NiYanyan NiYan  BiYan BiXiaona  XuXiaona XuYucheng  HuYucheng HuJue  MaJue Ma*Yanlin  WangYanlin Wang*
  • International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that elevated serum ferritin (SF) levels in early pregnancy are significantly associated with the risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). However, these findings have primarily focused on singleton pregnancies, and evidence in twin pregnancies remains underexplored. This study aimed to explore the association between early-pregnancy SF levels and the risk of GDM in twin pregnancies, with a particular focus on different chorionicity types. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study involving 882 twin pregnancies delivered at our hospital between January 2019 and December 2021. The cohort included 700 dichorionic diamniotic (DCDA) and 182 monochorionic diamniotic (MCDA) pregnancies. Cases with gestational age at delivery less than 28 weeks, pre-existing diabetes, unknown GDM status, or mid-trimester fetal reduction in monochorionic-triamniotic (MCTA) pregnancies were excluded. GDM was diagnosed using a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) based on the IADPSG criteria. Serum ferritin (SF) levels were measured during the first prenatal visit in the first trimester. Logistic regression, linear correlation analyses and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve were performed to assess associations between SF and GDM. Results In MCDA pregnancies, women with GDM had significantly higher mean SF levels compared to those without GDM (101.68±59.72 vs. 79.87±53.11 μg/L, p<0.05). Howerer, no significant difference was observed in DCDA pregnancies. In MCDA cases, SF levels >71.4 μg/L were independently associated with an increased risk of GDM (adjusted OR = 2.775, 95% CI: 1.191–6.466; p=0.018), with a significant trend across SF levels (p for trend = 0.012). Additionally, SF was positively correlated with fasting blood glucose in early pregnancy (r=0.17, p=0.025) and 1-hour OGTT glucose at 24–28 weeks (r=0.15, p=0.041) among MCDA pregnancies. Conclusions Elevated SF levels in early pregnancy are independently associated with a higher risk of GDM in MCDA twin pregnancies and may serve as a potential early biomarker for GDM prediction. In contrast, no significant association was found in DCDA pregnancies, indicating that the predictive value of SF may differ by chorionicity. Further studies are warranted to confirm these findings and investigate the underlying mechanisms.

Keywords: serum ferritin (SF), Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), Twin pregnancy, Chorionicity, monochorionic diamniotic (MCDA)

Received: 23 Apr 2025; Accepted: 01 Oct 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Ni, Bi, Xu, Hu, Ma and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Jue Ma, mary_0802@sjtu.edu.cn
Yanlin Wang, wyalin@sjtu.edu.cn

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