Hyperglycemia and reproductive defects in non-diabetic gravidas: a mouse model test of a new theory.
The frequent association of various reproductive anomalies with maternal diabetes is explained by a theory that predicts such defects will occur even in transient moderate hyperglycemia in non-diabetic gravidae. A first test of this hypothesis produced strongly supportive results in a mouse model. Thirteen C57BL/6J dams on a grain (control) diet produced (in the 4th week after first mating) 64 pups, 62 surviving to maturity. In the same time interval on a high sucrose diet, fourteen isogenic dams produced only 5 pups, none surviving 5 days (p much less than .001). Additional ongoing studies of the underlying glucose-ascorbate antagonism and of early vs. perinatal hyperglycemia are described briefly.
D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death / Q000209:etiology; D006943:Hyperglycemia / Q000150:complications*; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000209:etiology; D008098:Litter Size; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D011247:Pregnancy; D012098:Reproduction