PREVENTION OF CONGENITAL ANOMALIES : PREVENTATIVE EFFECTS OF PROTEIN-ANABOLIC STEROIDS UPON THE CONGENITAL DEFECTS INDUCED BY AN ANTICARCINOGEN IN MICE

Abstract

An attempt was made in these experiments to investigate the effects of an anabolic steroid (AS) on the teratogenic activity of mitomycin C(MC). Pregnant mice of CF#1 strain were given a single intravenous injection of 5 mg/kg. bw. of MC on the 12th day of gestation and were also subjected to double intramuscular injections of 25mg/kg. bw. of As, first one hour before and then two hours after the MC treatment. Other groups of mice were treated with MC or AS alone for comparison purposes. Pregnant mice were laparotomized on the 19th day of gestation and the fetuses were examined for external and skeletal abnormalities as well as for their body weight changes. Thirty-two (64.0%)of 50 pregnant mice with the MC treatment alone were delivered of more than one anomalous baby; external or skeletal malformations appeared in 201 live fetuses (44.6%) among 451 born to these mothers. Cleft palate, oligodactyly and syndactyly were observed most frequently, and abnormalities of the ossification of the sternum were the most common of skeletal malformations. Of 50 mothers with the combined treatment of MC and AS, however, only 19(38.0%) produced deformed babies; 49(10.7%) fetuses out of 457 live-borns. Only two anomalous babies(0.4%) were found among 472 fetuses born to 50 mothers with the AS treatment alone, which incidence was within the limit of the spontaneous occurrence of congenital malformations in this particular strain of mice. The average body weights of live fetuses from the AS group, the AS-MC group and the AS group were 1.169g, 0.903g and 0.780g respectively, differences among the groups being significant at the probability level of less than 0.01. Also, highly significant differences were observed among the three groups in the maternal body weight increase during pregnacy (AS group: 18.97g, AS-MC group: 15.03g and MC group:12.54g). These results indicate that anabolic steroids act inhibitively on the teratogenic activity of mitomycin C. Speculative discussion was made of the mechanism of this effect in the text.