Contra-Insulin Effect in Gestational Diabetes on Glucose Uptake and Insulin Use for Human Placental Cells

A significant amount of prior research has been conducted to investigate type 2 diabetes, the most prevalent form afflicting over 90% of diabetic individuals [6]. Yet, gestational diabetes is an understudied form of diabetes that is thought to share various attributes with type 2 diabetes. It was the aim of this project to investigate a proposed mechanism of the disease, the contra-insulin effect, through a cell-culture experiment. To address the question of whether glycemic and hormonal conditions of cell-culture media affect Hs 795.Pl morphology, cellular growth, and glucose uptake, immunocytochemistry (ICC) and a glucose uptake assay was performed. It was hypothesized that higher the presence of hormones, specifically lactogen, in cell culture media will exacerbate the contra-insulin effect, decreasing the glucose uptake of the Hs 795.Pl cells and inducing abhorrent cell morphology. Qualitatively, estradiol and cortisol had a severe impact on cellular morphology indicative of stress and death. As for glucose uptake, it was decreased when the hormones were isolated compared to all together with estradiol thought to be majorly inhibitory to insulin’s proper functioning. It was concluded that cell morphology, growth, and glucose uptake were detrimentally impacted by the gestational hormones, especially those of cortisol and estrogen.