Gestational diabetes induced neuronal loss in CA1 and CA3 subfields of rat hippocampus in early postnatal life.
This study was conducted to determine the effect of gestational diabetes on the  neuronal density of CA1 and CA3 subfields of the hippocampus in Wistar rat offspring.  On day 1 of gestation, 10 dams were randomly allocated into two control  and diabetic groups. Five animals in the diabetic group received 40 mg/kg/b.w. of  streptozotocin (intraperitoneally) and the control animals were received normal saline.  Six offspring of each of the gestational diabetics and controls were randomly  selected in postnatal days 7 and 21. The infants were scarified and coronal sections  were taken from the right dorsal hippocampus and stained with cresyl violet. The  number of pyramidal cells per 10000 μm(2) area and the thickness of layers of hippocampus  in CA1 and CA3 were evaluated. In postnatal day 7, the number of pyramidal  neurons in CA1 significantly reduced from 118.82 ± 8.0 in the control group to  84.71 ± 3.3 neurons in gestational diabetic group, and in postnatal day 21 it significantly  reduced from 112.71 ± 6.9 in the control group to 91.52 ± 8.5 in the  gestational diabetic group. Also, the number of pyramidal cells of CA3 on postnatal  day 7 significantly reduced from 90.33 ± 8.1 in the control group to 62.86 ± 7.2 in  the gestational diabetic group, and in P21 the number of pyramidal cells significantly  reduced from 78.33 ± 2.4 in the control group to 61.7 ± 9.5 cells in the diabetic  group. In CA1 and CA3 the thickness of the pyramidal layer on postnatal days 7 and  21 non-significantly increased in gestational diabetics in comparison with the controls.  This study showed that uncontrolled gestational diabetes reduces the pyramidal  neurons of the hippocampus in rat offspring.
Department of Anatomical Sciences, Gorgan Congenital Malformations Research Center, Gorgan, Iran. mjgolalipour@yahoo.com
M J
MJ
Golalipour
S Kaboli
SK
Kafshgiri
S
S
Ghafari
D000818:Animals; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis; D001835:Body Weight; D056547:CA1 Region, Hippocampal / Q000473:pathology*; D056654:CA3 Region, Hippocampal / Q000473:pathology*; D002452:Cell Count; D003921:Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology*; D016640:Diabetes, Gestational / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
D001786:Blood Glucose