Effect of transplacental mitotic inhibitors on the fetal hamster eye

✍ Scribed by Ferm, Vergil H.

• Book ID: 102743309
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1964
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 666 KB
• Volume: 148
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-276X
• DOI: 10.1002/ar.1091480203

✦ Synopsis

Congenital malformations of the hamster eye, consisting of microphthalmia and anophthalmia have been noted consistently in the offspring of pregnant hamsters treated with intravenous injections of colchicine, Vincaleukoblastine (VLB) and Vincristine (VCR) on the eighth day of gestation. In a n attempt to compare the mitotic-arresting activity of these three compounds on the lens and retina of the fetal hamster eye, various concentrations of the drugs were injected into pregnant hamsters on the fourteenth day of gestation and the fetuses recovered after three hours. Mitotic counts were done on comparable sections of lens and retinas of the fetuses. Colchicine has the most marked mitosis-inhibiting activity of these three drugs. The most effective mitosis-inhibiting dosage of colchicine also correlates with its most effective teratogenic dose. VLB and VCR do not inhibit mitosis in the fetal hamster eye as markedly as colchicine and their most effective mitosis-inhibiting dosages are equal to or above levels which cause a 95-100% embryonic mortality. It is possible that some common biological mechanism other than inhibition of mitosis may be responsible for the similar teratogenic activity of these compounds. The natural resistance of the golden hamster to colchicine does not appear to be manifest in the developing embryos in utero.