TITLE:
Prenatal and perinatal exposure of acrylamide disrupts the development of spinal cord in rats
AUTHORS:
Ahlam M. El-Bakry, M. Abdul-Hamid, A. Allam
KEYWORDS:
Acrylamide; Spinal Cord; Anatomy; Histology; Development
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of Neuroscience,
Vol.3 No.1,
February
20,
2013
ABSTRACT: Acrylamideis neurotoxic to the experimental animals and humans. Also, it has mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. Acrylamide was orally administered to non-anesthetized pregnant females by gastric intubation (10 mg/kg/day). The animals were divided into three groups as follows: 1) Group A, newborn from control animals; 2) Group B, newborns from mothers treated with acrylamide from day 7 (D7) of gestation till birth (prenatal intoxicated group); 3) Group C, newborns from mothers treated with acrylamide from D7 of gestation till D28 after birth (perinatally intoxicated group). In the present study acrylamide-induced histopathological and histochemical changes in brachial and lumber regions of spinal cord, including some pyknotic neurons and marked decrease of colour intensity of DNA contents as well as obvious retardation of sensorimotor reflexes of rat newborns. Thus acrylamide and its toxic metabolites resulted in teratogenicity in the rat newborns if their mother exposed to them chronically during gestation and lactation periods. As the spinal motor neurons are the final output neurons of motor systems, so a detailed developmental study is important for a greater understanding motor reflexes development. Moreover, the data on the acrylamide-induced effects on the embryonic and postnatal development is relatively rare. So, the present study was carried out to examine its effects on the development of spinal cord.