Figure 3.

Effects of fructose and fructose plus melatonin over mothers and newborns in body weight and blood glucose levels. (a and b) show the body weight ratio (a) at term compared to the first day of pregnancy and blood glucose level (b) from 4 mothers maintained with standard diet (control) or supplemented daily with fructose (n = 4) or fructose plus melatonin (fructose + Mel, n = 4)). (c and d) show the body weight (c) and blood glucose level (d) from newborns (3–5 days). Wistar rats (200–250 g) were fed daily with standard diet (pellet) or supplemented with fructose-rich syrups equivalent to 2.7 g/kg/day (Great Value, USA) or fructose plus melatonin (Sigma-Aldrich, USA). Melatonin supplementation was given daily in drinking water at 0.1 mg/kg/day beginning at the third week and maintained after mating. Measurement of body weight and glycemia was performed from newborns euthanized by decapitation. We obtained the blood sampling in the tail tip, previously gently massaging the tail, and then using the Accu-Chek test strip system for glycemia measurement. The weight of the mothers as expressed with the ratio between body weights at term versus the first day after mating (grams at term/grams at day 1). ^∗Different from control, P < 0.05, one-way ANOVA, Newman–Keuls posttest. ^∗∗Fructose versus fructose + melatonin. The protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Bío-Bío.