Diabetes in pregnancy predisposes the baby to suffer metabolic diseases such as diabetes, since the metabolic alterations caused by diabetes during pregnancy modify the plasticity of the stem cells of the amniotic membrane and these alterations are related to the metabolic parameters of the baby.

An associated metabolic diabetes and metabolic diseases (CIBERDEM) and the Pere Virgili Health Research Institute (IISPV) has demonstrated, how diabetes affects the pregnant placenta is key to advance in the understanding of this disease and howIt can affect the development of the fetus and its health in adult life.

These cells can be a "tool to study fetal cells indirectly" and open "new research in this field," explained researcher Sonia Fernández-Veledo.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (DMG) affects between 6 and 15 % of all pregnancies, and relates to high risk to the baby to suffer overweight and obesity, type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular diseases during their adult life.

Different population studies suggest that the children of mothers who develop gestational diabetes can present up to twice the chances of developing overweight and between four and eight times more risk of developing type 2 diabetes throughout their lives.