Abstract
Benzimidazole compounds are used in both humans and animals for controlling helminth parasites. Albendazole has teratogenic effects attributed to its active metabolite albendazole sulphoxide. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of the latter compound when administered to pregnant CF1 mice during the preimplantation period. Females were superovulated by intraperitoneal injection of 10 IU of eCG and 10 IU of hCG (48h later) and were paired with males of proven fertility. Albendazole sulphoxide (200 mg/kg) was orally administered by gavages at day 1, 2 or 3 of pregnancy; the control group received only the vehicle (carboxymethylcellulose). Females were killed by cervical dislocation at day 4 of pregnancy and embryos were flushed from uteri with Ham F10 media supplemented with bovine serum albumin (0.4%). Number of collected embryos per female, percentage of morphologically normal embryos, differentiation rate and number of cells per embryos were recorded. The variables were analyzed on a per litter basis by Kruskal-Wallis test. There was no effect of albendazole sulphoxide on parameters evaluated (P>0.05). We conclude that the preimplantation mouse embryo development was not significantly affected by albendazole sulphoxide.
Highlights
Mammalian preimplantational development involves cellular processes that transform the zygote, a totipotent cell, in a blastocyst, i.e., in an embryo consisting of differentiated cells
Among the agents that have demonstrated teratogenic effects, there are drugs utilized in parasitic control in farm animals whose presence causes important sanitary problems and economic losses
The need of controlling them has promoted the development of molecules with anthelmintic activity, being benzimidazole a broad-spectrum anthelmintic agent used in veterinary medicine
Summary
Mammalian preimplantational development involves cellular processes that transform the zygote, a totipotent cell, in a blastocyst, i.e., in an embryo consisting of differentiated cells. These stages can be modified by certain agents that give rise to anomalies. The need of controlling them has promoted the development of molecules with anthelmintic activity, being benzimidazole a broad-spectrum anthelmintic agent used in veterinary medicine. Benzimidazole presents a broad spectrum of activity as an anthelmintic agent, with high effectiveness and safety (Campbell, 1990), administered during gestation, they have shown teratogenic effects such as external, skeletal and vascular abnormalities (Cristòfol et al, 1997; Navarro et al, 1998, 1999; Teruel et al, 2003; 2009a)
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