Effects of Calcium Channel Blockers on Cultured Rat Embryos

✍ Scribed by Yoshiki Ban; Toshio Nakatsuka; Hiroyoshi Matsumoto

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 515 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0260-437X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1263(199603)16:2<147::aid-jat324>3.0.co;2-l

✦ Synopsis

Gestational day 11 rat embryos were cultured for 20 h in the presence of nifedipine (NIF), diltiazem (DIL) and verapamil (VER), and the effects of these calcium channel blockers on embryonic heart rate and gross morphology were examined. Reductions of embryonic heart rate were dose dependent and reversible. Effects on the heart rate were seen at doses as low as 0.3, 1 and 20 p g ml-' for VER, DIL and NIF, respectively. Retardation of embryonic growth and morphological abnormalities, which were related to circulation defects, were seen at termination. The minimum doses to produce 100% effect on gross morphology were 2, 6 and 40 pg ml-' for VER, DIL and NIF, respectively. These findings suggest that embryolethality seen in vivo studies is partly due to circulation defects and the associated morphological abnormalities in rats.

Embryo culture

An excess of ether was administered to females on GD 11, and the conceptuses from each litter were CCC 0260--237)(/96/020147-05 ci;' 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd