Maternal diabetes leads to violation of the structural organization of offspring cardiomyocytes in postnatal ontogenesis

Often, women with diabetes mellitus give birth to children with diabetic fetopathy, which is characterized by a high incidence of defects in the development of the cardiovascular system. The aim of the study was an experimental analysis of the structural and functional features of the contractile cardiomyocytes of the left ventricle of 70-day-old adult offspring obtained from mothers with type I diabetes mellitus induced before pregnancy. Diabetes mellitus was modeled in adult sexually mature female rats using streptozotocin. The apex of the wall of the left ventricle of their sexually mature offspring was subjected to histological examination. The control group was animals obtained from mothers with uncomplicated physiological pregnancy. During the study, it was found that in experimental animals there is a decrease in the specific area of the parenchyma of the left ventricular myocardium with a simultaneous increase in the area of the stroma, a decrease in the number of contractile cardiomyocytes and their nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio, a significant decrease in the content of binuclear cardiomyocytes and the increase of accumulation of glycogen in them. The results obtained allow us to conclude that experimental type I diabetes mellitus in pregnant female laboratory rats causes a violation of the structural and functional formation of the contractile apparatus of the heart of their offspring and leads to persistent structural myocardial disorders in the late period of postnatal ontogenesis.