Abstract
BackgroundLabetalol is an antihypertensive drug commonly used in obstetrics for both long-term treatment and the acute management of severe maternal hypertension. However, there have not been published articles about the effects of labetalol on the myocardium and the placenta. This study aimed to estimate the histological, immune-histochemical, and ultrastructural cardio- and placental-toxicity of labetalol administration and the effectiveness of ginger against this toxicity in pregnant rats. Labetalol was daily administrated orally with or without ginger at a dose of 300 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg, respectively, during the gestation days 6 to 20.ResultsIn the labetalol-administrated group, the myocardium displayed histological and ultrastructure destructive changes and a significant increase in caspase-3 expression. Labetalol also decreased the placental weight compared with the control group, caused marked degeneration and disorganization of their architecture, and increased caspase-3 expression. Co-administration of ginger after labetalol highly ameliorates the adverse effect of labetalol on both cardiac and placental tissues.ConclusionsIt is concluded that ginger can mitigate cardiac and placental toxicity induced by labetalol administration into pregnant rats.
Highlights
Labetalol is an antihypertensive drug commonly used in obstetrics for both long-term treatment and the acute management of severe maternal hypertension
Based on scarce information about the hazard effect of labetalol administration on tissue structure during pregnancy, this study described its effect on both heart and placenta of pregnant rats
Histopathological results of the present study demonstrated that administration of labetalol during pregnancy induced many histological changes in the heart of the pregnant rats
Summary
Labetalol is an antihypertensive drug commonly used in obstetrics for both long-term treatment and the acute management of severe maternal hypertension. Labetalol is used alone or together with other medicines to treat high blood pressure. The latter adds to the workload of the heart and the arteries. As with all β blockers, labetalol has negative inotropic effects and has the potential to cause acute left ventricular failure if given in sufficiently large enough doses to patients who have impaired function of the left ventricle (Facchini et al, 2015). Study by El-Borm et al (2021) reported that labetalol had severe pathological effect on the rat fetal heart. According to the available knowledge, studies on the effect of labetalol on the architecture of the internal organs is needed
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