Abstract

Background & aims: Vitamin D is being increasingly recognized for its important non-skeletal functions including endocrine actions. This study investigated if a single, large, intramuscular postpartum injection of vitamin D improve adiponectin levels among women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Methods: A total of 45 pregnant women with GDM participated in this randomized clinical trial. They were randomly divided into intervention and control group. The intervention group received an intramuscular injection of 300,000 IU of vitamin D during 3–10 days after their child delivery, but controls did not. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and serum adiponectin were measured at baseline and after 3 months of intervention. Results: Serum 25 OH vitamin D increase significantly in the intervention but not in the control group from 24.25 to 62.10 (nmol/L) (p-value < 0.01). Comparison in within group showed that adiponectin level increased significantly only among intervention group after the vitamin D injection from 7.45 to 8.98 (ngr/dL) (P-value = 0.01), while between group comparisons showed no significant differences in adiponectin concentration after the intervention (P-value < 0.05). Between and within group comparisons reported no significant alterations in the levels of HbA1c and FPG, as well. Conclusions: The 300,000 IU single dose of intramuscular injection of vitamin D is regarded as an effective procedure to improve vitamin D status which significantly increased the adiponectin levels among mothers with gestational diabetes after delivery. © 2020