Stereological Evaluation of Renal Glomeruli in Offspring of Diabetic Female Rats

Objective: although in vitro studies have shown that high concentrations of glucosecan induce dysmorphogenesis of the embryonic kidney, the possible adverse effectsof exposure to intrauterine hyperglycemia on kidney development, especially in regardto nephrogenesis, has not been evaluated.the aim of this study is to investigate the effects of maternal diabetes on glomerulistructures of the offspring, focusing on the following parameters: glomeruli volumeand number, mesangium volume, mesangial cell number and glomerular capillaryvolume.materials and methods: before mating, fifteen female sprague dawley rats, dividedinto three groups, were diabetes induced by a single intraperitoneal dose of 65 mg/kg streptozotocyn (stz). after 30 days of breast feeding, ten offsprings from eachgroup (two per mother) were randomly selected for kidney removal. the kidneyswere weighed and their tissues were processed for light microscopy. glomerular featureswere evaluated quantitatively using dissection as well as the cavalieri methodand were then compared with sham and control groups.results: at birth, the mean body weight of diabetic mothers’ offspring (do) was significantlylower than that of the control group’s offspring (co) and sham group’s offspring(so) (p=0.001), however, the mean body weight of the 30 day-old do was notlower than that of co and so (p>0.05). the total renal volumes, cortical volumes,glomerular mean and total volumes, total mesangeal volumes, total capillary volumesand total glomerular numbers were significantly lower in the do than in co and so(p<0.05). the numerical density of glomeruli and mesangial cells per glomeruli weresignificantly greater in do than in co and so (p<0.05).conclusion: we concluded that intrauterine hyperglycemia is accompanied by anephron deficit which may not be compensated within the first 30 days after birth.