Maternal diabetes significantly increases the risk of congenital malformations, and the mechanisms involved are not yet clarified. This study was designed to address peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPARdelta) involvement in diabetic embryopathy. We investigated the concentrations of PPARdelta and its endogenous agonist prostaglandin (PG)I(2), as well as the effect of PPARdelta activation on lipid metabolism and PGE(2) concentrations in embryos from control and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats during early organogenesis. Embryos from diabetic rats showed decreased concentrations of PPARdelta and its endogenous agonist PGI(2) when compared with controls. In embryos from control rats, the addition of the PPARdelta activators (cPGI(2) and PGA(1)) increased embryonic phospholipid levels and de novo phospholipid synthesis studied using (14)C-acetate as a tracer. PGE(2) formed from arachidonate released from phospholipid stores was also up-regulated by PPARdelta activators. In embryos from diabetic rats, reduced phospholipid synthesis and PGE(2) content were observed, and clearly up-regulated by cPGI(2) additions to values similar to those found in control embryos. These data suggest that PPARdelta may play an important role in lipid metabolic and signalling pathways during embryo organogenesis, developmental pathways that are altered in embryos from diabetic rats, possibly as a result of a reduction in levels of PPARdelta and its endogenous activator PGI(2).