Cytogenetic Studies of Some Cephalosporines Antibiotics on Mouse Germinal Cells.

Abstract

The ability of the 2 cephalosporins antibiotics “Cefadroxil” and “Cefaclor” to induce chromosomal abnormalities in mouse spermatocytes was investigated. Male Swiss mice were treated orally by gavage once with the doses 40, 80, 160 mg kg-1 b.wt. of “Cefadroxil” and 20, 40, 80 mg kg-1 b.wt. of “Cefaclor” and samples were taken 24 h after the treatment. A repeated daily treatment with therapeutic does of 40 mg “Cefadroxil” kg-1 b.wt. and 20 mg “Cefaclor” kg-1 b.wt. were given for 14 successive days samples were taken 24 h post treatment. The percentage of chromosomal aberrations in diakinesis-metaphase I spermatocytes increased in a dose dependent manner and was found to be statistically significant after high and repeated doses. It reached 6.0±0.5% and 5.6±0.7% (P<0.05) after treatment with 160 mg “Cefadroxil” kg-1 b.wt. and 80 mg “Cefaclor” kg-1 b.wt. respectively compared with 21.6±0.9% after treatment with “Mitomycin C”. The repeated doses of 14×40 mg “Cefadroxil” kg-1 b.wt. and 14×20 mg “Cefaclor” kg-1 b.wt. induced 7.4±0.6% and 6.0±0.7% (P<0.01) respectively. The 2 cephalosporins induced abnormal chromosomal associations including univalents (X-Y) and autosomal univalents) as well as structural chromosome aberrations. “Cefadroxil” and “Cefaclor” induced a dose-dependent increase in the percentage of abnormal sperm heads. Its highest value was 5.05±0.70% and 4.39±0.79% (P<0.05) after oral treatment with “Cefadroxil” and “Cefacolr” respectively, compared with 17.65±0.44 (P<0.01) after treatment with “Mitomycin C”. The results indicate that cephalosporines antibiotics “Cefadroxil” and “Cefaclor” have a remarkable cytogenetic effect on spermatocytes and sperm heads of the mouse when used as high and repeated doses.