Placental permeability and energy metabolism enzymes in fetuses of lipemic rats.

A model of maternal lipemia without hyperglycemia, in the rat, produced by high-fat feedings, was developed to study the effects of and abnormal maternal lipid homeostasis on placental transport of nutrients and possible alterations of key enzymes of energy metabolism in the liver and brain of the fetuses. Pregnant rats fed lower concentrations of fat served as controls. All studies were carried out in dams and fetuses one day prior to delivery. The dietary treatment of the dams and fetuses produced in the fetuses ketonemia as well as lipemia. Following a bolus of 14C-3-0-methyl-D-glucose to the dams, the levels of the tracer remained higher in the blood and brain of lipemic than in control fetuses. By contrast, there was a decrease in the fluxes of 14C-alpha-amino-isobutyric acid in the fetuses of lipemic dams as compared to controls. Among enzymes of energy metabolism, fetal liver glucose-6-phosphatase and succinic dehydrogenase were enhanced by lipemia. Fetal brain glucose-6-phosphatase was depressed. Thus, lipemia, as occurring in poorly controlled maternal diabetes, may be a factor in determining the access to the fetus of essential, neutral amino acids and alter the normal activity of energy metabolism enzymes in the fetus.