Influence of murine maternal diabetes on placental morphology, gene expression, and function

Abstract

Maternal diabetes causes placental and foetal abnormalities in both rat and humans; however, its effect is less well documented in the mouse. We used a standard approach to induce manifest diabetes in pregnant mice and assessed morphology, function and gene expression in the placentas isolated from these females. We found that diabetic placentas exhibit a consistent abnormal phenotype characterized by increased junctional zone cross sectional area. Lipid profiling of diabetic foetuses and placentas showed that the placental phenotypes do not compromise the lipid transport function of this organ. In a genomewide survey of mRNA expression by using cDNA micro-arrays, we identified 118 ESTs, corresponding to 59 annotated genes, with differential expression in the diabetic placentas. A significant proportion of these known is involved in metabolism, immunity and defence, and signal transduction. In addition, we found two imprinted genes, Igf2 and Gatm, which exhibited altered expression. The expression of other imprinted genes, Peg1, Gtl2, Peg3, Igf2r and Grb10, was determined by quantitative RT-PCR. For all of these genes, slight changes in gene expression were observed between diabetic placentas and control placentas. Our study thus provides the basis for future work that will address gene action in the diabetic mouse placenta.

Placental Effects of Systemic Tumour Necrosis Factor-α in an Animal Model of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

“…humans) [29]. While the total placental area was slightly higher than in wt mice, we found no hypertrophy of the trophospongium as observed in some diabetic rodent models [30].…”

Poorly controlled diabetes mellitus alters placental structure, efficiency, and plasticity

“…28 31 Our observations of placentomegaly are consistent with earlier reports examining the effects of diabetes mellitus on placental development in the mouse and rat. [32][33][34][35] An expansion of glycogen cells within the junctional zone compartment has been a common finding. 36 37 Diabetes in humans is associated with alterations in placental surface area, volume, intervillous space, terminal villi, syncytiotrophoblast, fibrinoid areas, and glycogen deposits.…”

Aberrant Growth and Pattern Formation in Peromyscus Hybrid Placental Development1

“…Placental hypoplasia is associated with intrauterine and other growth retardation [2,4] syndromes, while hyperplasia is associated with fetal overgrowth syndromes such as BeckwithWiedemann [38] as well as gestational diabetes [39] and various forms of gestational trophoblast disease [40]. Peromyscus offer the opportunity for assessing the effects of natural genetic variation on placental growth, development, and physiology as well as an additional comparative model for these processes as well as disease.…”