Stereological examination of the change in the number of pyramidal neurons in the hippocampus during pregnancy in rats with experimental diabetes model

In this study, the change in the number of pyramidal neurons in the hippocampus of trimesters during gestation period in diabetic and normal rats with stereological methods was investigated. For this purpose, rats were randomly divided into two groups; control group (n: 18) diabetes mellitus group; Streptozotocin (STZ) experimental diabetic group (n: 18) was divided into. 45 mg/kg STZ was administered intraperitoneally (i.p) to the diabetes mellitus group. The control group did not undergo any procedure. Three days after the administration, both groups were weighed and their blood glucose levels were measured. In the diabetes group, those with blood glucose levels above 200mg/dl were considered as diabetes. Routine follow-up and staining was performed by removing brain tissues from rats opened under anesthesia on days 7, 14 and 21 for trimester periods. For the numerical density calculation, the physical disector sections were taken for each group of animals in a total of five sections, each sixth section with a thickness of 5µm. All sections were stained with Hematoxylin and eosin for neuron counting. In the stereological examination of the preparations, cell counts were performed with unbiased counting frame. Mann-Whitney U test was used for statistical analysis. As a result of stereological calculations, the difference between diabetes and control groups was statistically significant (p<0.05). However, no difference was observed between trimesters.