A new model of diabetic pregnancy with genetic hypertension: pregnancy in spontaneously hypertensive rats with neonatal streptozotocin-induced diabetes.

Abstract

We designed this study to develop a new animal model of high-risk pregnancy complicated by hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Female spontaneously hypertensive rats were injected intraperitoneally with 75 mg/kg streptozotocin or vehicle as control at 2 days of age. They were mated with untreated male spontaneously hypertensive rats at 4 to 5 months of age. Hyperglycemia, defined as > 20 mmol/L plasma glucose level, was maintained during pregnancy in streptozotocin-treated spontaneously hypertensive rats, and systolic blood pressure was significantly higher in the streptozotocin-treated group than in controls before delivery (p < 0.01). Furthermore, urinary albumin excretion was significantly increased in the streptozotocin-treated group during and after pregnancy compared with the prepregnant level (p < 0.05), whereas in controls it remained unchanged. The incidence of low birth weight was significantly higher in male neonates from streptozotocin-treated mothers than those from control mothers (p < 0.05). Neonatally streptozotocin-treated spontaneously hypertensive rats may be useful for studying the combined effect of hypertension and diabetes mellitus during pregnancy.