KIU Publications

Gestational diabetes mellitus was a major pregnancy complication driven largely by insulin resistance, and its prevalence remained substantial worldwide, affecting about 4 to 16.5% of pregnancies, with a pooled global standardized prevalence of 14.0% in one meta-analytic estimate. This narrative review examined how gut microbiome-derived metabolites, especially short chain fatty acids, bile acids, and trimethylamine N oxide related compounds, may serve as biomarkers for insulin resistance in gestational diabetes, with emphasis on their biological plausibility and clinical utility. The article was written by synthesizing recent peer reviewed literature on gut microbiota, metabolic profiling, and gestational diabetes to identify recurring mechanistic and diagnostic themes. The reviewed evidence suggested that altered metabolite patterns in gestational diabetes correlated with glucose and lipid disturbances and may support early detection, risk stratification, and future therapeutic targeting. Serum and fecal metabolomic signatures have identified discriminatory metabolites with reasonable diagnostic performance, although validation in larger and ethnically diverse cohorts remains necessary. Overall, microbiome-derived metabolites are promising biomarker candidates, but standardization, longitudinal sampling, and integration with clinical data are required before routine use.