Histopathological Changes in Multiple Fetal Tissues Exposed In-Utero to Zidovudine

Rajlakshmi Chongtham

doi:10.4172/2155-6113.1000373

Abstract

Objective: Zidovudine, the first antiretroviral drug is used to prevent vertical transmission of HIV infection. Without any adequate proof of its safety to fetus, the drug was administered to pregnant women. The present experiment aims to study at the light microscopic level, the effect of zidovudine in fetus exposed in-utero to the drug. Material and method: Sixty Swiss mice were divided into two groups of control (n=20) and experimental (n=40). A dose of 50 mg/kg/day was administered orally to experimental group and an equivalent amount of normal saline to control group. Drug was administered from day 8 to day 16 of gestation and on day 19 the animal was sacrificed. Fetus collected after laparotomy were fixed in 10% neutral formalin and then subjected to light microscopic study to assess the histopathological changes. H&E stained sections of liver, lung, kidney, brain and maternal ovary was analysed. Result: Fatty degeneration of liver, degenerative changes in kidney section, dilatation of alveoli with thinning of alveolar wall, microcystic degeneration in cerebral cortex was observed. The maternal ovary of experimental group had small corpus luteum. Conclusion: Multiple tissues are affected by in-utero administration of ZDV. Further study at ultrastructural level is needed.

Highlights

Zidovudine (3’-azido 3’-deoxythymidine, azidothymidine, ZDV) is the first antiretroviral agent used to treat patients suffering from HIVAIDS
Fetus collected after laparotomy were fixed in 10% neutral formalin and subjected to light microscopic study to assess the histopathological changes
Multiple tissues are affected by in-utero administration of ZDV

Summary

Introduction

Zidovudine (3’-azido 3’-deoxythymidine, azidothymidine, ZDV) is the first antiretroviral agent used to treat patients suffering from HIVAIDS. Since 1994, this drug is used to HIV positive pregnant women to prevent vertical transmission of the virus during pregnancy [1]. ZDV was an indispensible prophylactic drug especially to HIV positive pregnant women after a US Public Health Services Task Force recommended its use for reduction of perinatal HIV-1 transmission [2]. Despite the dramatic increase of ZDV in the perinatal use of ZDV, information about the microscopic consequences of use of ZDV to fetus, infants and children who were exposed to the antiretroviral drug in- utero is still meager [3,4,5]. The present study was carried out to investigate the prenatal effect of ZDV in fetus at the light microscopic level. The article may be considered as the continuation of teratogenic effect of ZDV published earlier by us [6,7,8]

Material and Methods

Result

Findings

Discussion