Effect of Clarithromycin administration on pregnant albino rats during the cleavage period of gestation and on their embryos

ABSTRACT

Background: Clarithromycin is a macrolide antibiotic used to treat common infections including respiratory tract, skin and Helicobacter pylori. This work investigates whether the administration of clarithromycin to pregnant females during the cleavage phase of gestation was associated with a risk of miscarriages and offspring morphological malformation and skeletal anomalies, histological changes and DNA fragmentation of embryos and liver of pregnant rats. Two major groups of pregnant albino rats were used. The animals of the control group received distilled water from the 1[st] to 7[th] days of gestation.One subgroup [C1] was sacrificed on the 8[th] day; and the other [C2] was sacrificed on the 20[th] day of gestation. The treated group was drenched 45 mg/kg clarithromycin [therapeutic dose] suspension from 1[st] to 7[th] day of gestation. The first subgroup [T1] was sacrificed on the 8th day and the other [T2] was sacrificed on the 20th day of gestation