Responses of mitochondrial biogenesis and function to maternal diabetes in rat embryo during the placentation period

Mitochondria are cellular organelles that have been reported to be altered in diabetes, being closely related to its associated complications. Moreover, mitochondrial biogenesis and function are essential for proper embryo development throughout the placentation period, occurring during organogenesis, when a great rate of congenital malformations have been associated with diabetic pregnancy. Thus, the aim of the current work was to investigate the effect of the diabetic environment on mitochondrial function and biogenesis during the placentation period. For this purpose, we studied the oxidative phosphorylation system (OXPHOS) enzymatic activities as well as the expression of genes involved in the coordinated regulation of both mitochondrial and nuclear genome (PGC-1α, NRF-1, NRF-2α, mtSSB, and TFAM) and mitochondrial function (COX-IV, COX-I, and β-ATPase) in rat embryos from control and streptozotocin-induced diabetic mothers. Our results reflected that diabetic pregnancy retarded and altered embryo grow...