The Effects of Glucose Concentration on Early Embryogenesis Using the Whole Embryo Culture System on Rats

In order to investigate the effect of hyperglycemia on fetal teratogenesis, rat embryo culture was performed according to the method of New et al. The effect of hyperglycemia was then studied at glucose concentrations of 300, 600, 900 and 1,200 mg/dl in the medium. The embryos from the high glucose medium (600 mg/dl) had significantly shorter CRLs and fewer somites. Major anomalies characterized by neural lesions and minor anomalies characterized by extraneural lesions increased as the glucose concentration increased. However, fetal growth was promoted with statistical significance in the medium with 300 mg/dl of glucose, where the incidence of malformations remained unchanged as compared to the control group. The findings indicate that the glucose is one of the substantial compounds which influences embryo growth, development and abnormalities, but glucose alone appears to have no major effect on early embryogenesis in diabetic pregnancy.