Frequency of fetal anomalies from pregnant rats with mild diabetes submitted to moderate intensity exercise program

Abstract

Materials and methods The experimental severe diabetes was induced in newborn female Wistar rats in the first day of birth by intravenous injection of Streptozotocin in a dose of 100 mg/Kg. In adult life (110 days) the rats were submitted to oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) to confirm the moderate diabetes. After its confirmation, rats were mated and randomly assigned to 4 experimental groups (minimum n=13 animals/group): Control: non-diabetic pregnant rats without exercise (sedentary); Exercise: non-diabetic pregnant rats exposed to exercise; Diabetic: diabetic pregnant rats without exercise; Diabetic Exercise: diabetic pregnant rats exposed to exercise. The moderate intensity exercise program was swimming, from the 7th to 20th days of pregnancy. At day 21 of pregnancy, the rats were anesthetized and the uterus was removed. Fetuses were analyzed to external, visceral and skeletal anomalies. Analysis of variance followed by Tukey’s test was used to mean values and Fisher Exact test was used to proportions. Differences were considered statistically significant when p<0.05.