GESTATIONAL DIABETES IN RHESUS MONKEYS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is an increasingly prevalent problem with important health and societal impact, yet controversies continue in the most elementary issues related to GDM. While clinical studies are assessing the effects of maternal hyperglycemia on subsequent development of obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease risk in the offspring, progress is hampered by the absence of a good experimental animal model. While clinicians report that frank gestational diabetes is rare in the monkey population at Yerkes, they are presented with only the most advanced cases. No systematic studies of glucose tolerance have been done in the captive population. Last year, we initiated a pilot project to identify pregnant female rhesus monkeys at risk for gestational diabetes. Of 10 females studied during pregnancy, three have serum glucose in excess of 160 mg/dl, clearly indicative of potential problems with glucose regulation. Data are being collected on a large number of rhesus females to better understand the incidence in our population. In addition a second cohort of adult females were recruited to be fed a high fat, high sugar diet during pregnancy and the early post partum period to determine how macronutrituient content influences gestational glucose regulation and what consequences these may have on post natal development of the offspring. The data generated in these studies will serve as the nucleus for grants submitted to the NIH (e.g. NICHD, NIDDK, NHLBI) and foundations, such as the American Diabetes Association and March of Dimes.