Abstract. Pregnant diabetic Wistar rats were fed a high-fat diet starting at the first gestational day. The effect of the highfat diet on the growth of the female, her offspring, and the offspring's offspring was studied. Pregnant rats (first generation) were divided into the Diabetic streptozotocin-induced group and the control group. Diabetic streptozotocininduced rats and control rats were fed either a control diet (5% fat in diet) or high-fat diet (32% fat in diet), and observed up to the third generation. In each generation, after weaning, the pups were fed the respective diet. The fat content was mainly animal lard. Diabetic rats fed the high-fat diet were infertile, and the pregnant first-generation and diabetic rats fed the control diet had a stillbirth rate of 27.5 ± 22.0% (mean ± SE). In the first generation, the diabetic rats fed the control diet had a significantly lower body weight increase during the pregnancy than the control rats fed the control diet. The second-generation diabetic rats fed the control diet had a high blood glucose level at birth, and their triglyceride level was higher than that in the other two groups. The third-generation diabetic rats fed the control diet had a triglyceride level higher than that of control rats. Delivery was most difficult in diabetic rats fed the high-fat diet. Pups of diabetic rats fed the control diet had growth retardation and increased blood glucose levels. We conclude that when the mother rat had diabetes, the next generation was also affected. IT has been known that the newborns of diabetic mothers are frequently macrosomic in humans [1]. Hypernutrition during pregnancy causes hyperinsulinemia in the fetus, making the newborn macrosomic. Risk factors for giving birth to macrosomic newborns include maternal gestational diabetes, obesity, and excessive body weight. The risk factors can be removed by nutrition management [2,3]. It has been reported that in animals diabetes in a pregnant mother affects her own lipid metabolism as well as that of her offspring [4,5]. When a high-fat diet was given to pregnant female rats, pancreatic cell development in the fetuses deteriorated and the newborns were hyperglycemic [6]. Even in women with normal pregnancies, unbalanced nutrition during the pregnancy affects the growth of her offspring after birth. The newborns of mothers with a nutritional disorder have low body weight associated with insulin secretion insufficiency. Twelve-week-old offspring of diabetic female rats had impaired glucose tolerance [7]. In this study, pregnant diabetic rats were fed a highfat diet during pregnancy and the suckling period, and the influence of diet on the mother and offspring and the subsequent growth of the mother and offspring were studied.
