Rajlakshmi Chongtham, Asima Bhattacharyya and Mohan Kumar
Objective: Zidovudine, the first antiretroviral drug is used to prevent vertical transmission of HIV infection. Without any adequate proof of its safety to fetus, the drug was administered to pregnant women. The present experiment aims to study at the light microscopic level, the effect of zidovudine in fetus exposed in-utero to the drug. Material and method: Sixty Swiss mice were divided into two groups of control (n=20) and experimental (n=40). A dose of 50 mg/kg/day was administered orally to experimental group and an equivalent amount of normal saline to control group. Drug was administered from day 8 to day 16 of gestation and on day 19 the animal was sacrificed. Fetus collected after laparotomy were fixed in 10% neutral formalin and then subjected to light microscopic study to assess the histopathological changes. H&E stained sections of liver, lung, kidney, brain and maternal ovary was analysed. Result: Fatty degeneration of liver, degenerative changes in kidney section, dilatation of alveoli with thinning of alveolar wall, microcystic degeneration in cerebral cortex was observed. The maternal ovary of experimental group had small corpus luteum. Conclusion: Multiple tissues are affected by in-utero administration of ZDV. Further study at ultrastructural level is needed.
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