Background: 2, 3, 7, 8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) can cause a high percentage of cleft palate in fetuses when administered during organogenesis in certain strains of mice including the C57BL/6J. In this study, vitamin B(6) (B(6)) was tested for antiteratogenic effects on TCDD-induced cleft palate in fetal mice.
Methods: The pregnant C57BL/6J mice were dosed with 24 microg TCDD/kg and/or 5, 10, 20, and 40 mg B(6)/kg body weight on gestation day (GD) 10. The control group mice were dosed with 50 ml sesame oil/kg body weight on GD10. The mice were sacrificed on GD12.5, GD13.5, GD14.5, GD15.5, and GD17.5, respectively. The harvested embryos were examined to detect the incidence of cleft palate and the developing palatal shelves in a different phase were investigated morphologically and histologically among different groups.
Results: Total frequency of clefts is 55.56% in the TCDD group and 31.81% (5 mg), 44.44% (10 mg), 40.90% (20 mg), and 32.00% (40 mg) in the TCDD+ B(6) groups. There were no statistically significant differences among the TCDD and TCDD+ B(6) groups (p = 0.743 > 0.05).
Conclusions: It was demonstrated in this study that B6 could not antagonize 2, 3, 7, 8-TCDD-indued cleft palate.
(c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.