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This book on gestational diabetes does not claim to cover all aspects of this complex and ever-evolving medical condition. It is an attempt by the group of authors to provide an overview, highlight important features, and bring to light certain recent advances in the diagnosis, screening, and understanding of gestational diabetes mellitus. As the book provides an overview of the condition, we are sure that reading it would provide medical undergraduates and postgraduates a quick revision for their exams. The current concepts section of the book may inspire more exploration into this area.It has been a pleasure to work with experts, both senior and junior, for this endeavor but we are particularly grateful to the publisher IntechOpen who have shown commitment and perseverance in completing this work. This new book deserves to be a success and we are sure it will be.

Diabetes in pregnancy. --- Diabetes, Gestational.

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Over the last few decades the prevalence of diabetes has dramatically grown in most regions of the world. In 2010, 285 million people were diagnosed with diabetes and it is estimated that the number will increase to 438 million in 2030. Hypoglycemia is a disorder where the glucose serum concentration is usually low. The organism usually keeps the serum glucose concentration in a range of 70 to 110 mL/dL of blood. In hypoglycemia the glucose concentration normally remains lower than 50 mL/dL of blood. Hopefully, this book will be of help to many scientists, doctors, pharmacists, chemicals, and other experts in a variety of disciplines, both academic and industrial. In addition to supporting researcher and development, this book should be suitable for teaching.

Diabetes --- Treatment. --- Endocrinology

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Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease characterized by chronic high blood glucose levels. Of the various types of diabetes, type 2 diabetes is increasing in prevalence due to obesity, aging, sedentarism, and other factors. This book presents a novel approach to preventing and treating type 2 diabetes. Chapters cover such topics as diagnosis, pathogenesis, management, lifestyle and nutritional intervention, and systems to support early diagnosis and prevention of prediabetes.

Type 2 diabetes.

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Management of hypoglycemia in diabetes mellitus is a landmark achievement, especially in patients who take insulin. This book provides a comprehensive overview of hypoglycemia, including its pathophysiology, causes, clinical manifestations, management, and screening. It presents recent findings and research in the field and discusses new advancements in hypoglycemic control, including recently developed point-of-care devices for the home and the clinic.

Hypoglycemia. --- Diabetes --- Complications.

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The main causes of morbidity and mortality in diabetes are macrovasular and microvascular complications, including atherosclerosis, nephropathy, and retinopathy. As the definition of atherosclerosis as a chronic, smoldering, inflammatory disease has gained general acceptance, the attention of researchers has focused on the triggers of chronic vascular inflammation. The oxidation and other forms of modification of lipids and lipoproteins have emerged as a major pathogenic factor in atherosclerosis, with a significant interaction with the immune system. Modified lipoproteins by themselves are proinflammatory through the activation of the innate immune system as a consequence of the interaction with scavenger receptors and/or toll-like receptors expressed by a variety of cell types, including phagocytic cells and dendritic cells. A variety of modified forms of LDL (mLDL), including oxidized, malondialdehyde-modified, and Advanced Glycation End-product-modified LDL induce autoimmune responses in humans. Those modifications seem enhanced in diabetes, and the progression of atherosclerosis is accelerated in diabetic patients. The immune response to all forms of mLDL results in both activation of T cells in the arterial wall and in an autoimmune response characterized by the formation of IgG antibodies. Both arms of the immune response are believed to play a role in vascular inflammation. While the cell response is likely to activate resident macrophages, the humoral immune response results in the production of IgG antibodies that bind to specific epitopes in modified forms of LDL, generate immune complexes both intra- and extravascularly, and those complexes are able to activate the classical pathway of the complement system as well as phagocytic cells via Fc? receptors. In vitro studies suggest that the pro-inflammatory activity of immune complexes containing mLDL is several-fold higher than that of the modified LDL molecules by themselves. Clinical studies have provided significant support to the pathogenic role of immune complexes containing modified LDL in the development of atherosclerotic complications in patients with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. At the same time, there is increasing evidence that the formation of immune complexes containing modified forms of LDL may also be involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy and retinopathy. These are areas in which more research is needed to fully understand the pathogenic mechanisms activated by those immune complexes. Of interest is the fact that animal models have suggested the possibility of modifying the adaptive humoral immune response in ways that would result in slowing down, and perhaps prevent, the atherosclerotic process. This possibility is sufficiently alluring as to justify increased research efforts, both in animal models (including diabetic animals) and translational clinical studies. The manipulation of the T regulatory population is another area of potential translational impact, which has hardly been explored. Indeed at this point of time, what seems to be a high priority is an increased and open interchange of information among investigators, trying to reach a better general understanding and integration of knowledge generated from a variety of approaches and perspectives. This Research Topic provided an optimal platform for this open interchange of information. We encouraged interested scientists to submit mini-reviews, methods papers, review articles, perspectives and original research articles covering this topic in all its diversity to facilitate the communication of perspectives and new information between scientists interested in understanding the multiple implications of the involvement of the immune system in the pathogenesis of diabetic complications.

immune system --- Diabetes --- Endocrinology