Abstract
Insecticides and other agrochemicals have become indispensable components of the agricultural system to ensure a notable increase in crop yield and food production. As a natural consequence, chemical residues result in significantly increased contamination of both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The present study evaluated the teratogenic, genotoxic, and oxidative stress effects of residual-level lufenuron exposure on pregnant rats during the organogenesis gestational period of both mother and fetus. The tested dams were divided into three groups; control (untreated), low-dose group (orally administered with 0.4 mg/kg lufenuron) and high-dose group (orally administered with 0.8 mg/kg lufenuron). The dams of the two treatment groups showed teratogenic abnormalities represented by the asymmetrical distribution of fetuses in both uterine horns, accompanied by observed resorption sites and intensive bleeding in the uterine horns, whereas their fetuses suffered from growth retardation, morphologic malformations, and skeletal deformations. Histologic examination of the liver and kidney tissues obtained from mothers and fetuses after lufenuron exposure revealed multiple histopathologic changes. DNA fragmentation and cell cycle perturbation were also detected in the liver cells of lufenuron-treated pregnant dams and their fetuses through comet assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Moreover, lufenuron-induced oxidative stress in the liver of mothers and fetuses was confirmed by the increased malondialdehyde levels and decreased levels of enzymatic antioxidants (glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase). Taken together, it can be concluded that lufenuron has a great potential in exerting teratogenic, genotoxic, and oxidative stresses on pregnant rats and their fetuses upon chronic exposure to residual levels during the organogenesis gestational period. The obtained results in the present study imply that women and their fetuses may have the same risk.
Highlights
Insecticides and other agrochemicals have become indispensable components of the agricultural system to ensure a notable increase in crop yield and food production
The growing world economy and aggressive competition in the food industry have inevitably forced insecticides and agrochemicals to become an indispensable component of the agricultural system to ensure that crop yields and food production are increased[1]
The average maternal body weight that was recorded for the three tested groups throughout the gestational period demonstrated a significant reduction in weight gain during the 3 weeks of gestation in High dose group (HD) group (48.4 ± 1.99) when compared to Low dose group (LD) group (60.2 ± 1.74) and control group (77.30 ± 2.07) (Table 1)
Summary
Insecticides and other agrochemicals have become indispensable components of the agricultural system to ensure a notable increase in crop yield and food production. The present study evaluated the teratogenic, genotoxic, and oxidative stress effects of residual-level lufenuron exposure on pregnant rats during the organogenesis gestational period of both mother and fetus. It can be concluded that lufenuron has a great potential in exerting teratogenic, genotoxic, and oxidative stresses on pregnant rats and their fetuses upon chronic exposure to residual levels during the organogenesis gestational period. The growing world economy and aggressive competition in the food industry have inevitably forced insecticides and agrochemicals to become an indispensable component of the agricultural system to ensure that crop yields and food production are increased[1] These competitions have totally focused on increasing production, intentionally ignoring the impact of chemicals on environmental and human h ealth[2]. Maternal environmental exposure to chemical pollutants was recently ranked as the second most important cause of infant mortality in developing
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