Spinal cord damage in Zalcitabine maternally treated mice foetuses

The present article explores the impacts of the anti-Aids drug (Zalcitabine) on the histological structure and morphometric analysis of the spinal cord of 14-day old mice fetuses. Pregnant mice received two oral concentrations of Zalcitabine (600 and 1000 mg/kg) for five consecutive days (from day 9 to day 13 of gestation). The histological structure of spinal cord in 14 day old control fetuses revealed an outer marginal layer (white matter), an inner mantle layer (grey matter), and a central neural canal. The spinal cord of fetuses of mothers fed the low dose of the drug was either slightly affected or did not show any change relative to the controls. On the other hand, the high dose treatment was found to produce a significant decrease of spinal cord diameter, great morphometric variations as well as several histopathological changes. Cellular disorientation of the neuroepithelium and distortion of the neural canal were the most frequent anomalies encountered. KEY WORDS: anti-aids drug, mice fetuses, neural canal, neuroepithelium. Egyptian Journal of Biology Vol.3(2) 2001: 102-10