Identification of potential gene markers in gestational diabetes mellitus

This study aims to investigate underlying mechanisms of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). In this work, the GSE70493 dataset from GDM and control samples was acquired from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Afterward, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened between GDM and control samples. Subsequently, functional enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis of these DEGs were carried out. Furthermore, significant sub-modules were identified, and the functional analysis was also performed. Finally, we undertook a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) with the purpose of confirming several key genes in GDM development. There were totally 528 up-regulated and 684 down-regulated DEGs between GDM and healthy samples. The functional analyses suggested that the above genes were dramatically enriched in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) process and immune-related pathways. Moreover, PPI analysis revealed that several members of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) superfamily, including down-regulated HLA-DQA1, HLA-DRB1, HLA-DPA1, and HLA-DQB1 served as hub genes. In addition, six significant sub-clusters were extracted and functional analysis suggested that these four genes in sub-module 1 were also associated with immune and T1DM-related pathways. Finally, they were also confirmed by qRT-PCR array. Besides, the four members of HLA superfamily might be implicated with molecular mechanisms of GDM, contributing to a deeper understanding of GDM development.