SUMMARY: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) defined as impaired glucose tolerance affects approximately 6 % of all pregnant women who have never before had diabetes, but who do have high blood glucose levels during pregnancy. This study was done to evaluate the apoptosis in the neuronal cells in the CA1, CA2 and CA3 subfields of hippocampus and dentate gyrus in offspring of gestational diabetes at the 7, 21 and 28 d in postnatal rats. Thirty Wistar rat dams were randomly allocated in control and diabetic group. Dams in diabetic group were received 40 mg/kg/BW of streptozotocin at the first day of gestation and control groups received an equivalent volume normal saline injection intraperitoneally (IP). Six offspring of GDM and control dams, at the 7, 21, 28 postnatal day were randomly were sacrificed quickly with anesthesia. The coronal sections of brain serially collected. The apoptosis neurons were evaluated with TUNEL Assay. In the CA1, the number of apoptotic cells in 7, 21 and 28 d of postnatal life were significantly increased in GDM compared to controls (P<0.001). In the CA2, CA3 the number of apoptotic cells in 7, 21 and 28 d age-old offspring were significantly increased in GDM compared to controls (P<0.001). In the dentate gyrus, the number of apoptotic cells in 7, 21 and 28 d of postnatal life were significantly increased in GDM compared to controls (P<0.01). This study showed that the uncontrolled gestational diabetes significantly increases neuronal apoptosis in hippocampal and dentate gyrus in rat offspring.
KEY WORDS: Gestational diabetes; Hippocampus; Neuron; Apoptosis; TUNEL Assay; Dentate gyrus; Rat.
