This study was designed to investigate the effect of maternal diabetes in rat dams on histological architecture and integrity of liver and kidney of their offspring. Diabetes mellitus was induced in rat females by single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin at dose level of 45 mg/kg b. w. Proesterous normal and diabetic females were left for one night to copulate with the normal males (2 females with one male) and the resulting pregnant rat dams were allocated into two main groups, normal control group and streptozotocin-induced diabetic group. After birth, the surviving offspring were subjected to histological examination of liver and kidney immediately after delivery and at the end of the 1st and 2nd postnatal weeks. The liver and kidney weights relative to body weight, determined at the same periods, were significantly increased in offspring of diabetic dams only at the end of the 2nd week as compared to those of the corresponding offsprings of normal rat dams. The liver of diabetic rat offspring after birth showed abnormal histological architecture since the hepatic strands are less organized and many hepatocytes with pyknotic nuclei. After one week of birth, the liver section revealed severe widening of the central vein, albuminous material accumulation with focal necrotic areas and degenerated hepatocytes associated with abnormal distribution of condensed cytoplasm and of karyoplasms. After two weeks of birth, the liver appeared even more deteriorated than before. The central vein was congested with blood. The hepatocytes were hydropically degenerated and their nuclei became pyknotic. The kidney of diabetic rat offspring, on the other hand, showed mild occlusion of the renal tubules with albuminous material accumulation at birth. The glomeruli were smaller and more condensed. After the 1st postnatal week, odema and mononuclear leucocytic infiltration were observed and many tubules still suffer from occlusion. After two weeks of birth, the kidney section illustrated severe degenerative changes of renal tubules with intratubular fibroblastic proliferation. In conclusion, the maternal diabetes during the period of gestation in rat dams deleteriously affects histological architecture and integrity of the offspring liver and kidney.
 

Download Full Text - PDF