Scheme 1.

Experimental design of the study and main results of the study. (A) We studied HUVEC obtained from non-diabetic (C) and diabetic pregnant women (GDM). Diabetic women were treated with diet alone (GDM) or with diet plus Myo (GDM+Myo). In these three cell groups we conducted the described experiments. This allowed us to assess the characteristics of HUVECs from women supplemented with Myo during pregnancy. The results obtained in this group of cells were compared with the data obtained from HUVECs of non-diabetic women (C) and from diabetic women treated with diet alone (GDM), neither of which received Myo. (B) In order to confirm that the characteristics observed in HUVECs exposed in vivo to Myo were specifically due to Myo action, we repeated the indicated experiments in HUVECs harvested from Control and Diabetic women treated with diet only and then exposed them to Myo in vitro only.