Teratogenic effects of adriamycin on the prenatal development of the vertebral column of the albino rat

ABSTRACT

Adriamycin [cytotoxic, antineoplastic antibiotic] and its metabolites had been implicated as human teratogens. Teratogenic studies had shown multiple congenital defects in rats exposed prenatally to adriamycin including esophageal atresia, multiple intestinal atresias, hydronephrosis and retarded bone ossification and formation of accessory ribs. Forty litters were used in this study for both control and experimental groups [20 for each] in the present study. Their mothers received 3 intra peritoneal injections [each of 1.75 mg/kg] in the 6[th], 7[th] and 8[th] days of gestation. On the 21[st] day of gestation all pregnant animals were sacrificed and their fetuses were obtained through laparotomy and uterine incisions. One half of the litters of both control and experimental groups were used for gross skeletal study using alizarin red stain and the other half was subjected for light microscopic study using ordinary paraffin section preparation technique. Morphometric measurements were applied to study variations of the total body weight, the CRL of the litters, the vertical and antro-posterior diameters of the vertebral bodies and the disc space and vertical diameter of the nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral discs. Multiple vertebral defects in the form of delayed or absent ossification features in the vertebral bodies, delayed or fusion between the bodies and neural arches, abnormal fusion between vertebral bodies, non visualization of most caudal vertebrae and significant decreased morphometric measurements of the experimental animals were observed in the present work. These abnormalities as well as features of intrauterine growth retardation caused by adriamycin that is considered as an antimitotic agent causing delayed differentiation and growth by interfering with cell division