Resveratrol relieves gestational diabetes mellitus in mice through activating AMPK

BACKGROUND: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a disease often manifests in mid to late pregnancy with symptoms including hyperglycemia, insulin resistance and fetal mal-development. The C57BL/KsJ-Lep(db/+) (db/+) mouse is a genetic GDM model that closely mimicked human GDM symptoms. Resveratrol (RV) is a naturally existing compound that has been reported to exhibit beneficial effects in treating type-2 diabetes. METHODS: In this study, we investigated the effect of RV on the pregnant db/+ GDM mouse model, and the underlying molecular mechanism. RESULTS: RV greatly improved glucose metabolism, insulin tolerance and reproductive outcome of the pregnant db/+ females. Moreover, we found that RV relieved GDM symptoms through enhancing AMPK activation, which in turn reduced production and activity of glucose-6-phosphatase in both pregnant db/+ females and their offspring. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings further supported the potential therapeutic effect of RV on not only diabetes, but also alleviating GDM. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12958-015-0114-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.