Maternal diabetes reduced the expression of Nrf2 to a similar degree in wild type and Alx3-null embryos, making it an unlikely candidate as a target for regulation by ALX3 (Fig. 4D). On the contrary, maternal diabetes increased the expression of Foxo1, but this response was significantly blunted in Alx3-null embryos (Fig. 4D). Expression of Foxo4 was also increased in embryos developing in diabetic pregnancies, but the difference between Alx3-deficient and wild type embryos was not statistically significant (Fig. 4D). Thus, these experiments indicate that lack of ALX3 impairs induced expression of Foxo1 in diabetic pregnancies, and suggested that this gene could be a direct target for regulation by ALX3.