Pregnancy and fetal development in hamsters treated with prostaglandin F2 alpha

Alcohol, pregnancy, and prostaglandins

Basic scientists and clinicians alike are in agreement that children of alcoholic mothers are at risk for a variety of birth defects. These defects have been labeled fetal alcohol syndrome or, in a milder form, fetal alcohol effects. Prevention or therapeutic intervention of this disorder requires an understanding of the mechanism of action of alcohol on the developing fetus. This paper addresses the possible role of prostaglandins as biochemical mediators of the teratogenic actions of alcohol.

Prenatal hamster development following maternal administration of PGE2 at midterm

The effects of PGE2 on embryonic and fetal development were studied in the golden Syrian hamster. Pregnant hamsters were treated on day 8 of gestation with either 0.2, 0.5, 0.75, or 1.0 mg/kg PGE2 delivered I.P. and the near term litters were compared to those of untreated and vehicle treated controls. Fetuses from the treated litters showed significantly higher frequencies of mortality, lower weights, malformations, and missing ossification centres in comparison to control litters. The results demonstrate that PGE2 is teratogenic in the hamster and the developing neural tube and the fetal skeleton are particularly susceptible to the effects of this teratogen.

Maternal toxicity: a possible etiological factor in embryo-fetal deaths and fetal malformations of rodent-rabbit species

Data from animal teratology studies were surveyed to determine whether embryo-fetal mortality and fetal malformations result from a primary action of the agent on the conceptus or if they are secondary to maternal toxicity--a consequence of administration with high dose levels of test chemicals. A fairly strong association between embryo-fetal mortality and maternal toxicity was revealed by analysis of data from hamsters, mice, rats, and rabbits in 234 studies of chemical and physical agents, of which 83 were conducted at both maternotoxic and nonmaternotoxic doses, 94 only at maternotoxic doses, and 49 at nonmaternotoxic doses. In the above studies, only nine chemicals (four each in hamsters and rabbits and one in rats) were reported to induce embryo-fetal deaths at apparently nonmaternotoxic doses. These findings tend to suggest a contributory role for maternal toxicity in the induction of embryo-fetal deaths. The previously reported hypothesis that certain fetal defects in mice may perhaps be caused by maternal toxicity was also found to be true in a review of data on hamsters, rats, and rabbits. Salient maternal toxicity-associated fetal malformations were exencephaly, encephalocele, micro- or anophalmia, and fused ribs in hamsters and defective (fused, missing, or extra) ribs, vertebrae, and sternebrae, ex-, an-, or microphthalmia, and cleft palate in rats and rabbits. These malformations occurred at low frequencies, generally with no readily apparent dose-response relationship. Presumptive evidence indicates that embryo-fetal deaths, and the above-mentioned fetal malformations in experimental animals, which in published literature are presently attributed to chemical induction for a large number of chemicals, may be a consequence of maternal toxicity per se.