INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of ethanol, diabetes mellitus and the combination of both on mouse fetuses. METHODS: We used 24 female Swiss mice, dividing them into four groups of 6 each: control (C), ethanol (E), diabetes (D) (blood glucose > 200 mg/dL) and diabetes + ethanol (DE). Diabetes was induced by alloxan (40 mg/kg) on day 7 of pregnancy. Groups E and DE received 4 g/kg of 25% v/v ethanol intraperitoneally, whereas groups C and D received saline. On day 18, all fetuses were harvested. RESULTS: In group DE the following anomalies were found: exencephaly, situs inversus totalis, situs inversus partialis, eyelid skin tag and one animal from group E had pulmonary artery hypoplasia. Ethanol administration partially reverted diabetes-fetal resorption caused by diabetes, yet it induced late fetal death. Both diabetes and ethanol reduced placental diameter and increased its weight. Ethanol had more effect on fetal length in males than in females, however, such bias was not found for diabetes. Ethanol prevented diabetes-induced tail shortening in both genders. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that, although ethanol might improve energy metabolism in early gestation, it causes cell damage that leads to cardiovascular, limb and neural tube defects, late fetal death and reduced placental size.
Diabetes mellitus; Ethanol; Neural tube defects; Fetus mice
