These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Impermeability of the rat placenta to insulin during organogenesis.
    Author: Widness JA, Goldman AS, Susa JB, Oh W, Schwartz R.
    Journal: Teratology; 1983 Dec; 28(3):327-32. PubMed ID: 6364437.
    Abstract:
    The cause of the embryopathy associated with diabetes mellitus is uncertain. To examine whether exogenously administered insulin may be teratogenic, tracer amounts of radiolabelled insulin were infused for two hours during organogenesis (day 12 1/2 of gestation) into three groups of pregnant rats: control (n = 8), diabetic (n = 5), and hyperinsulinemic (n = 4). For maternal plasma, no differences were found among the three study groups in the percentage of the protein-precipitable (insulin-containing) radioactivity. Tissue radioactivities were expressed relative to the two-hour maternal plasma sample. Maternal kidney samples had the highest total and protein precipitable counts followed in descending order by the maternal plasma, maternal liver, placenta, and embryo. No differences in radioactivities were noted among the three study groups for specific tissues studied. Protein-precipitable radioactivities in the embryo were more than 100-fold less than the maternal plasma values. In 11 of the 17 litters, the acid-insoluble fractions of the embryos were not distinguishable from background counts, and none of the remaining six were greater than twice background. These studies demonstrate that during the period of organogenesis, the rat embryo is protected from maternal insulin by the placenta, and hence, maternal insulin is an unlikely teratogen.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]