Fig. 4

Gestational diabetes mellitus promotes neuroinflammation in offspring (at 15 weeks of age). a Micrographs of Iba1 and GFAP immunostainings from 15-week-old rat hippocampi. b, c Iba1 staining allows visualization of microglial morphology and number of microglia/macrophages present in the hippocampus. Microglia in offspring from lean dams possess resting, ramified morphology, whereas GDM exposure reduced microglial ramification, as evident by increase in hypertrophic morphology and “fully activated” amoeboid morphology in GDM offspring brain. d GDM offspring also showed increased GFAP expression which demonstrates astroglial activation upon GDM. e Cytokine analysis of 15-week-old rat brain cortical section including the hippocampi, cortex, and hypothalamus does not indicate big changes in cytokine profiles between groups. f, g CX3CR1 expression was significantly reduced in GDM-HFS offspring brain. ^# p ≤ 0.05 compared to lean LF, *p ≤ 0.05 as indicated, n = 6