©1994-2018
All Rights Reserved. Online Journal of Veterinary Research. You
may not store these pages in any form except for your own personal use. All
other usage or distribution is illegal under international copyright treaties. Permission to use any of these pages in any other way besides the
before mentioned must be gained in writing from the publisher. This
article is exclusively copyrighted in its entirety to OJVR publications. This
article may be copied once but may not be, reproduced or re-transmitted without
the express permission of the editors.
OJVRTM
Online Journal of
Veterinary Research©
Volume 22 (3):179-187, 2018.
In utero effects of
sodium valproate on posterior neural tube and spinal cord in Sprague Dawley rat
embryos.
Ali Akbar Moaddab MSc, Zabihollah Khaksar DVM PhD, Soghra Gholami DVM PhD.
Department of Basic
Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
ABSTRACT
Moaddab AA, Khaksar Z, Gholami S., In utero effects of sodium valproate on
posterior neural tube and spinal cord in Sprague Dawley rat embryos, Onl J Vet Res., 22 (3):179-187,
2018. Potential
teratogenic effects of in utero administration of a single high dose of sodium
valproate (VPA) on the posterior neural tube and spinal cord in rat embryos are
described. Groups of 10 time-mated Sprague Dawley dams were injected 500 mg/kg
sodium valproate IP once daily from 7 to 10 days of pregnancy. Controls were
given saline IP. The 10 treated and control rats were
humanely sacrificed at 13 and 19 days of gestation. Offspring from VPA-treated dams
had decreased (P < 0.01) fetal body weight and crown-rump length.
A severe
deficit in formation of the vertebral arch and posterior covering tissue was observed
microscopically. The central canal was not fully closed and had
a narrow fissure extending internally to the marginal sagittal layer. Compared
with controls (P < 0.01-0.05) luminal longitudinal and internal
measures of the neural tube of
13-day rat embryos decreased but transverse diameter of central canal increased
in rats given VPA. In 19 day fetuses we found decreased sagittal
and transverse diameters of the spinal cord and mantle and marginal layers but an
increased ependymal layer in those
given VPA. Distance
between vertebral cartilaginous arches increased in rats given VPA. Our findings suggest that in utero, VPA may
induce developmental changes in the spinal cord of rat offspring.
Key words: Sodium valproate, Neural tube, Histomorphometric study, Rat embryo.
FULL-TEXT (SUBSCRIPTION OR PURCHASE ARTICLE)