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Hyperglycemia induces apoptosis in pre-implantation embryos through cell death effector pathways

Nature Medicine volume 4, pages 1421–1424 (1998)Cite this article

A Correction to this article was published on 01 March 2002

Abstract

Although perinatal mortality rates have improved for pregnant diabetic women because of insulin therapy and tight metabolic control, infants of diabetics still experience significantly higher rates of congenital malformations and spontaneous miscarriages compared with those of non-diabetic women 1 . Our results here indicate that hyperglycemic conditions, either in vivo or in vitro , modulate the expression of an apoptosis regulatory gene as early as the pre-implantation blastocyst stage in the mouse. Apoptosis in the mammalian pre-implantation blastocyst is a normal process, thought to protect the early embryo by eliminating abnormal cells 2 . Here we demonstrate that expression of Bax, a Bcl-2-like protein, is increased at the blastocyst stage in the presence of high concentrations of glucose, and that these changes correlate morphologically with increased DNA fragmentation. Expression of Bax and caspase are necessary for this in vitro glucose-induced apoptotic event, and ceramide is involved in mediating this embryotoxic effect of glucose. We also show that these apoptotic cellular changes can be prevented in vivo by treating hyperglycemic mice with insulin before and immediately after conception. These findings emphasize the importance of tight glycemic control in diabetic women at the earliest stages after conception.

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Figure 1: a, Confocal immunofluorescent labeling to quantitate Bax protein expression.
Figure 2: a, Detection of apoptotic nuclei in the blastocyst by TUNEL and nuclear staining with propidium iodide.
Figure 3: a, Prevention of glucose-induced apoptosis in Bax-null embryos or with pharmacologic intervention.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, 63110, Missouri, USA

    K.H. Moley & M.M.-Y. Chi

  2. Department of Medicine and Pathology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, 63110, Missouri, USA

    C.M. Knudson & S.J. Korsmeyer

  3. Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, 63110, Missouri, USA

    M.M. Mueckler

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  5. M.M. Mueckler
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Moley, K., Chi, MY., Knudson, C. et al. Hyperglycemia induces apoptosis in pre-implantation embryos through cell death effector pathways. Nat Med 4, 1421–1424 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/4013

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