First Advisor

Andrea James

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Document Type

Thesis

Date Created

12-1-2022

Department

College of Natural and Health Sciences, Biological Sciences, Biological Sciences Student Work

Abstract

In women with gestational diabetes, various hormones are secreted during pregnancy, such as estrogen and cortisol, which blocks insulin from activating the receptors to let glucose travel through the cells. To help adjust to the high glucose levels in the blood, pancreatic beta cells are used to uptake glucose to release insulin, to lower the concentration of the amount of glucose in the blood. When a fetus is indirectly exposed to high glucose throughout the bloodstream, it can lead to early-onset Type II diabetes in children. Zebrafish are an excellent animal model to use as they are aquatic and make it accessible to place glucose solutions in the area the zebrafish are housed in. The glucose solutions that were treated in this model were 4%, 5%, 25μM & 50μM of D-Glucose. The data suggest that the control, 4%, & 5% obtained a high survival rate of 97%, 93%, & 84%. In the 25μM & 50μM, the survival rates were 0.05% and 1%. The data showed that exposure to high glucose to an embryo can influence the embryo's survival rate and leads to changes in its phenotype. It was noted that with higher glucose in the 25μM and 50μM concentrations, embryos phenotype appeared to have a curled (bent tail). Together the results show that a hyperglycemic environment leads to changes in the embryo's phenotype and increases the mortality rate based on higher glucose concentrations.

Rights Statement

Copyright is held by the author.

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