Effect of maternal diabetes on response to hypoxia in the newborn rabbit

We tested the hypothesis that maternal diabetes is associated with a decreased ability of the newborn to tolerate hypoxia by measuring the time to last gasp of rabbit pups born to diabetic and control does and placed in 100% N2. Rabbits were made diabetic by injection of 100 mg/kg alloxan i.v. The alloxan-treated mothers had significantly elevated blood glucose during pregnancy and at delivery (132 vs. 90 mg/dl, p less than 0.001). Pups were delivered at 30 day's gestation by hysterectomy under local anesthesia. Half of each litter were immediately sacrificed and the remaining pups placed in 100% Ns. The pups from the alloxan-treated mothers showed a higher pre-asphyxial mean blood glucose (97 vs. 73 mg/dl, p less than 0.025) and a lower mean survival time (18.4 vs. 21.1 min, p less than 0.005).