Alexandra Burt

The effects that hyperglycemia has on a developed brain are not well understood. It is necessary to understand the long term neurological effects of hyperglycemia, so that appropriate treatments can be developed. This paper analyzes the effects of hyperglycemia in mature brains and how a high fat diet can further affect hyperglycemia. This was achieved by taking sections of postnatal (P) day 65 rat brains. There were four total groups. A control group that is fed a normal diet, a control group that is fed a high fat diet, an experimental group that is treated with streptozotocin (STZ) to induce neonatal hyperglycemia that is fed a normal diet, and an experimental group that is fed a high fat diet. Two different regions of the brains were collected; the hippocampus and the corpus callosum. The sections were stained with an antibody and images were taken of three different regions of the hippocampus; the CA1, CA3, and DG. The images were analyzed for the number of microglia present. The analyzed images showed that there was increased microgliosis in the STZ treated rats in comparison to the control rats. While it was hypothesized that the groups that were fed a high fat diet would show increased microglia compared to the groups that were fed a control diet, there was no significant difference between the groups that were fed different diets.