Effects of intramuscular sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (fansidar) administered to pregnant Sprague Dawley rats on some tissue enzymes in the gonads of their litters

ABSTRACT

Sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine preparations are antimalaria drugs which owe their efficacy to their antifolate properties. Folates are essential for DNA synthesis and their deficiency at critical periods in gestation have been shown to be teratogenic in variious animals including man. This experiment has shown that, when administered to Sprague Dawley rats at certain periods in gestation, the activities of some enzymes essential for gonadonal steroidogenesis, such as delta 5-3-beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (delta 5-3(HSD), 17-beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17 beta-HSD), and Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6-PD) were found to be significantly reduced in the gonads of their litters (AU)