Mephedrone as a new synthetic amphetamine induces abortion, morphological alterations and mitochondrial dysfunction in mouse embryos

Abstract

We have studied the embryo-fetal toxicity of mephedrone in mice during organogenesis period on gestation day (GD) 6–15 in mice during organogenesis period intraperitoneally. Our observation showed that mephedrone induces abortion, reduction in the weight, length and diameter of the placenta and fetus. Also, histopathological and mitochondrial examinations showed pathological and mitochondrial abnormalities in placenta, liver and brain. Our data showed that mephedrone (20 mg/kg) adversely affects embryo-fetal/development in mouse fetus due to mitochondrial toxicity. Hope these results would be helpful for awareness of mephedrone addicts and their families and also medical society about mephedrone for its probable embryo-fetal toxicity.

Keywords:

• Developmental toxicity
• mitochondria
• apoptosis
• mephedrone
• teratogen

Acknowledgement

The data provided in this article was extracted from the Pharm D. thesis of Dr. Mina Kazemnezhad. The thesis was conducted under supervision of Prof. Jalal Pourahmad at Department of Toxicology and Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Disclosure statement

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Deputy of Research.