Pregnancy outcome in the Psammomys obesus gerbil on low- and high-energy diets.
BACKGROUND
Diabetes mellitus (DM) during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk for poor reproduction and a high rate of congenital malformations. The gerbil Psammomys obesus is a unique model for nutritionally induced Type 2 DM (T2DM) that enabled us to study the outcome of uncontrolled T2DM during pregnancy.


METHODS
Female Psammomys on low-energy (LE) or high energy (HE) diet were studied. The blood glucose levels and weights of pregnant animals were determined. The offspring from the different groups were followed-up to weaning.


RESULTS
Most of the HE-diet animals were diabetic (77%). There were no differences in the pregnancy rates in animals on both diets (32.7% in HE vs. 38.3% in LE). Pregnancy of the HE-diet group was longer than the LE-diet group (26.7 vs. 26.1 days), and litter average was reduced (2.7 vs. 3.0). At birth, the offspring of the HE-diet dams weighed less (5.2 vs. 7.2 g) and had smaller crown rump length (4.0 vs. 4.6 cm) These offspring also presented a 1-3 days delay in neuro-developmental parameters (first turn over, hair appearance, eye-opening and response to noise). However, from the fourth week of life they became diabetic, and from the third week they weighed more than the LE offspring.


CONCLUSIONS
HE-diet caused diabetes, maternal complications and altered reproduction in Psammomys animals. The offspring of diabetic Psammomys presented birth weight and length changes as well as developmental delay.
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology The Hebrew University, Laboratory of Teratology, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
Natan
N
Patlas
Meytal
M
Avgil
Ehud
E
Ziv
Asher
A
Ornoy
Eleazar
E
Shafrir
D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; D004032:Diet; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D005849:Gerbillinae; D023421:Models, Animal; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D014886:Weaning; D015430:Weight Gain
D001786:Blood Glucose