ABSTRACT
A series of experimental papers confirms the importance of glucose for fetal growth. Gruppuso et al. caused chronic hypoglycemia on the 15th to 18th day of the rat pregnancy when administering a constant infusion of insulin. Intragastric supplementation of aminoacids and of glucose was performed in some of the fetuses. The maternal weight was the same in both groups, but the supplemented fetuses were considerably heavier and exhibited less biochemical evidence of malnutrition. The increase in blood glucose was practically same in both groups of parturients with glucose infusions and substantially higher than under normal conditions. The reduced utilization of glucose plus the low insulin levels, indicate the presence of sufficient glycogen stores without hyperplasia of the pancreatic islets. When aged 8 to 12 years, oral glucose-tolerance tests were performed in 24 small-for-date (SFD) infants who received prenatal therapy, and in 29 SFD infants without prenatal glucose administration.
