Effect of Contraceptive Pills, Fungal Alkaloids and Wild Carrot Seeds Oil on Apoptosis in Albino Female Mice Lymphocytes

Abstract

This study compared three types of contraceptives agents by measuring the percentage of programmedcell death (apoptosis). Anti-fertility agents included contraceptive pills (Yasmin), fungal alkaloids(Cafergot) and the oil extract of the wild carrot seeds Daucus carota. Comparison process depended onthe evaluation of apoptosis percentage in mice lymphocytes, that treated orally for five successive dayswith the contraceptive agents by using the concentration of (60 µg/kg) of Yasmin pills, (20 µg/kg) ofCafergot and (0.1 ml) of wild carrot seeds oil. These were compared with the negative and positive controlmethotrexate (MTX) (50µg/kg). Results showed that the percentage of apoptosis by using wild carrotseeds oil was 0% which was the least in comparison to contraceptives and equal to the negative control0%. On the other hand, there were no significant differences in the percentage of apoptotic cells withCafergot treatment 0.1% in comparison with the negative control, while Yasmin pills treatment led to asignificant increases (P≤0.05) in apoptosis percentage to 0.6% in comparing to negative control. Thisresponse also significantly increased (P≤0.05) in MTX treatment reaching 1.8%. As conclusion the resultsof this work showed that, the oral contraceptive pills (Yasmin) was the most inducing contraceptive drugsto apoptosis, while Cafergot and wild carrot seeds oil were the least effective in comparison to thenegative and positive control.