Effects of Intervention With the Glucagon-like Peptide 1 (GLP-1) Analog Liraglutide Plus Metformin Versus Metformin Monotherapy in Overweight/Obese Women With Metabolic Defects and Recent History of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM)

Gestational diabetes is often the culmination of years of unrecognized and unmodified diabetes risk factors that lead to overt and occult clinical manifestations during pregnancy. . Despite the high and increasing rate of type 2 diabetes in Louisiana, the medical community does not have reliable estimates of the number of woman living in southern Louisiana who develop diabetes subsequent to GDM. Systematic reviews of older studies conclude that 35-60% women with gestational diabetes will develop type 2 diabetes at rates much greater than control groups who did not have glucose intolerance during pregnancy. The higher rates were in studies of particular ethnic groups in the U.S. Recently, follow-up programs elsewhere also have identified increasing rates of type 2 diabetes by 5-10 years after GDM: 9-43% type 2 diabetes in Europe and 11-21% in Asia. The frequency of type 2 diabetes is influenced by BMI, weight gain after pregnancy, family history of diabetes, fasting and postchallenge glucose levels during and after pregnancy, postpartum insulin resistance and inadequate β-cell secretion, and the need for pharmacological treatment during pregnancy. However, the risk factors are unable to predict all cases of subsequent type 2 diabetes: the biggest risk factor is a GDM pregnancy. Presently, in the literature, there are described new, more efficient methods of diabetes prevention in groups with a high risk of this disorder, which involve both, lifestyle modification and pharmacological therapies. Lifestyle intervention was found to reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes by 58% and metformin by 31% as compared with placebo. The use of rosiglitazone in subjects with prediabetes resulted in a 60% reduction of the diabetes incidence rate. Studies are needed for optimal postpartum and long-term health of women who have had GDM. Considerable recent evidence suggests that incretin-based therapies may be useful for the treatment of DM2 because continuous administration of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) produces substantial improvements in glucose control and ß-cell function in subjects with type 2 diabetes. Infusion of GLP-1 improves first and second-phase insulin secretion suggesting that early GLP-1 therapy may preserve ß-cell function in subjects with IGT or mild DM2. Whereas native GLP-1 has a very short half-life, the GLP-1 analogue liraglutide has a prolonged action (t1/2=13 h) suitable for once-daily injection. Liraglutide may potentially delay disease progression in GDM considering the ß-cell function improvement in DM2 and ß-cell mass shown to increase in animal models. This study will examine if the addition of liraglutide to metformin therapy is more effective than metformin alone in improving metabolic parameters in at-risk overweight/obese women with prior GDM