267 Dudu Erkoc-Kaya 1* , Hilal Arikoglu 1 , Funda İscioglu 2 , Suleyman Hilmi Ipekci 3 1. Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Selcuk University, Konya, Türkiye. 2. Department of Statisics, Faculty of Science, Ege University, İzmir, Türkiye. 3. Department of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases, Hisar Hospital Intercontinental, Isanbul, Türkiye. * Corresponding Author: Dudu Erkoç-Kaya, PhD. Address: Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Selcuk University, Konya, Türkiye. Phone: +90 (532) 6605169 E-mail: dudu_erkoc@hotmail.com Genetic Risk Analysis of Gesational Diabetes Melli- tus in a Turkish Population Background: Gesational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a type of clinical diabetes characterized by insulin resisance and impaired insulin secretion because of environmental and genetic factors. The high risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) in women with GDM and the high risk of developing GDM in women with a family hisory of T2D suggess that both diseases may have the same genetic basis. Therefore, genes and risk variants associated with the genetic architecture of T2D are being invesigated for their efects on the development of GDM. In this sudy, we aim to invesigate ABCC8, TCF7L2, Adiponectin, IRS1, and PPARG genes, which are known as T2D risk genes, to undersand the genetic basis of GDM in a Turkish population. Materials and Methods: In our sudy, 74 pregnant women diagnosed with GDM according to the American Diabetes Association criteria and 49 healthy pregnant women were included. DNA isolations were made from peripheral blood cells collected from pregnant women and regions of targeted genes were scanned by the Polimerase Chain Reaction- Resriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique. The homeosatic model assessment for insulin resisance (HOMA-IR), which is an indicator of insulin resisance, was calculated for each individual in the biochemical examinations. The associations of genotypes detected in the target gene regions with the disease and their efects on the biochemical phenotypes were analyzed by esablishing the dominant, recessive, and additive models along with calculating odd ratios. The P<0.05 was considered satisically signifcant in all analyses. Results: A satisically signifcant association was found between R1273R subsitution in the ABCC8 gene and GDM under dominant and additive models. No satisically signifcant correlation was found between the A1369S and e16/-3t→c variants in the ABCC8 gene and the screened variants in other genes and GDM. When the genotype-phenotype association data was evaluated, no association was detected between all the scanned variants and fasing blood sugar while a weak correlation was found between e16/-3t→c in the ABCC8 gene and fasing insulin (P=0.075) and HOMA-IR (P=0.067). Conclusion: ABCC8 (R1273R and e16/-3t→c) gene variants may be a risk factor for the development of GDM in the Turkish population. A B S T R A C T Keywords: Gesational diabetes, ABCC8 gene, TCF7L2 gene, Adiponectin gene, PPARG gene, IRS1 gene Citation Erkoc-Kaya D, Arikoglu H, İscioglu F, Hilmi Ipekci S. Genetic Risk Analysis of Gesational Diabetes Mellitus in a Turkish Population. Research in Molecular Medicine. 2021; 9(4):267-276. https://doi.org/10.32598/rmm.9.4.1232.1 https://doi.org/10.32598/rmm.9.4.1232.1 Use your device to scan and read the artcle online Article info: Received: 05 Sep 2021 Revised: 26 Sep 2021 Accepted: 19 Oct 2021 Article Type: Research Paper