Ultrastructural Changes in Placenta of Rats Treated with Nitrofen During Pregnancy

ABSTRACT

Nitrofen (2,4-dichloro-4′-nitrodiphenyl ether), a diapheny ether herbicide, is known to induce a variety of congenital cardiovascular anomalies together with diaphragmatic hernia and hydronephrosis in rat fetuses. After confirming pregnancy with the vaginal smear method, the primira rats were separated into two groups (n=30), a control group and an experimental group. On the first day of birth, the placenta regions were dissected under ketamine HCL anesthesia. The placental tissues of the nitrofen group and controls were compared microscopically. The results showed vascularisations in the gigant cells, edema in the placental stroma and trophoblastic cells in the basal zone that were significantly larger in the nitrofen group than in the control group except in the neonatal period.