Document Type : Research article
Authors
1
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, 71516 Assiut, Egypt
2
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, 83523 Qena, Egypt
3
Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, 71516 Assiut, Egypt.
Abstract
Mycotoxins are fungal products often found in food, formed during growth, harvesting, drying or storage of fruits, seeds, or grains, leading to a variety of toxic effects in humans and animals. Aflatoxins are a family of polyketide secondary metabolite produced by the food-contaminating moulds Aspergillus parasiticus and Aspergillus flavus. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a carcinogenic, teratogenic, mutagenic and growth inhibitory mycotoxin. To explore the negative morphological effects of AFB1 on the developing mice embryo, 50 adult females albino mice (CD1) were divided into five groups (10 females for each group): Control, positive control and three groups treated with a daily oral dose of 5, 10 or 20 μg/kg bw of AFB1 extract. Fifteen days after treatments, females were caged with males. Pregnancy, mortality, embryos number rates and body weight of female mice and infants were recorded. At 21 days old, crown rump, head, ear, tail, fore and hind-limb lengths of mice infants were investigated. Current data showed a decrease in pregnancy and embryo number rate among females in the animals treated with 10 & 20 μg AFB1, while treatment with 5 μg showed an increase in pregnancy and embryo number rate compared to control one, while mortality rate among fetuses increased in the three experimental animals treated with AFB1. Some cases of abortion were observed in 10 & 20 μg groups, while ulcers were observed in 20 μg groups. Weight and all morphometric parameters showed significant decrease except tail length that showed insignificant increase in the treated groups compared to
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