Congenital malformations induced by alloxan diabetes in mice and rats

Abstract

Abstract Two separate experiments were carried out. (1) Alloxan was injected subcutaneously into ICR female mice at 200 mg/kg on day 0 (zero) of gestation. In the animals which became persistently diabetic, 27.5% of the conceptuses underwent resorption or death and 7.2% of surviving fetuses showed gross malformations, including exencephaly, spina bifida and cleft palate. In nondiabetic experimental animals there was no increase in fetal mortality or malformation rate. (2) Wistar rats were treated by alloxan intraperitoneally at 160 mg/kg on the seventh day of gestation. Again, only in cases of persistent diabetes were there raised fetal mortality and high incidence of external and internal malformations (50.0% of survivors abnormal), including cataract, hydronephrosis, microphthalmia, exencephaly and cleft palate. When glucose concentration was determined in the embryo and amniotic fluid on the eleventh and thirteenth days of gestation, it was found to be much higher in the diabetic than in the control or the nondiabetic treated animals. The embryonic glucose level was always slightly lower than that of the maternal blood.