Ding M, et al. - Given that gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common complication of pregnancy that has substantial short- and long-term adverse health implications for women and their children, the researchers performed large-scale studies on genetic risk loci for GDM. From the Nurses’ Health Study II and the Danish National Birth Cohort, a case-control study was conducted among 2636 women with GDM and 6086 non-GDM control women. Eight variants associated with GDM, namely rs7957197 (HNF1A), rs10814916 (GLIS3), rs3802177 (SLC30A8), rs9379084 (RREB1), rs34872471 (TCF7L2), rs7903146 (TCF7L2), rs11787792 (GPSM1) and rs7041847 (GLIS3) were identified. In addition, the significant positive correlations between the weighted genetic risk score (GRS) and risk of GDM persisted across most of the strata of major risk factors for GDM, including family history of type 2 diabetes, smoking status, BMI and age.