Diabetes in pregnancy: a preliminary study of the pancreas, placenta and malformations in the BB Wistar rat.

Diabetes in pregnancy was studied in a new animal model, the spontaneously diabetic BB Wistar rat. The BB rat appears to be superior to the drug-induced models for the investigation of the effects of maternal diabetes on fertility, fetal development, and placental function because the disease entity develops spontaneously, is accompanied by destructive insulitis similar to pancreatic lesions in the human condition, and is controlled to various degrees by daily insulin therapy.