André Tadeu Gotardo

Effects of Prepartum Ingestion of Ipomoea carnea on Postpartum Maternal and Neonate Behavior in Goats

Ipomoea carnea is a toxic plant that grows in tropical areas, and is readily consumed by grazing goats. The plant contains the alkaloids swainsonine and calystegines, which inhibit cellular enzymes and cause systematic cell death. This study evaluated the behavioral effects on dams and kids of prenatal ingestion of this plant. Freshly harvested leaves of I. carnea (10 g/kg body weight) were fed daily to nine pregnant goats from the fifth to the 16th week of gestation; five pregnant goats were controls. Dam and kid behavior were evaluated during 2-hr postpartum. Further evaluation of the offspring was performed using various tests after birth: (1) reaching and discriminating their dam from an alien doe (two tests at 12-hr postpartum), and (2) navigating a progressive maze (2, 4, and 6 days postpartum). Postnatal (n = 2) and fetal (n = 2) mortality were observed in the treated group. Intoxicated kids had difficulty in standing at birth, and only one was able to suckle within 2 hr of birth. Treated kids were slower than controls to arrive at their dam in the discrimination test; treated kids often (seven of nine completed tests) incorrectly chose the alien dam (controls: 0/10 tests). During some runs on days 2, 4, and 6 postpartum, treated kids were slower to leave the starting point of the maze, and were slower to arrive at the dam on all test days. This study suggests that the offspring of pregnant goats given I. carnea during gestation have significant behavioral alterations and developmental delays.

Intoxication by Senna occidentalis seeds in pregnant goats: Prenatal and postnatal evaluation

Senna occidentalis is a weed toxic to different animal species. Very little is known about the effects of prolonged exposure to low doses of S. occidentalis on developmental toxicology. Thus, the present study proposes an approach to evaluate the perinatal toxicity of S. occidentalis seeds in goats. Twenty-one pregnant goats were fed rations containing 0% (control), 1% (So1 group), 2% (So2 group) and 4% (So4 group) mature S. occidentalis seeds from pregnancy detection on day 27 after mating until parturition; weight gains and serum biochemistry were evaluated. Fetuses were evaluated using ultrasonographic measurements; neonates were evaluated by body morphometry, weight gains, and serum biochemistry. Fetal resorption occurred in 2 So4 dams and one dam died. Only a few minor alterations in serum biochemistry occurred in dams and kids; even so one So4 group dam had tissue lesions as vacuolations in hepatocytes and kidneys; necrosis in skeletal and cardiac muscles and for the first time lesions were observed in sciatic nerve cells. No relevant alterations in body morphometry were observed. This study suggests that 4% S. occidentalis seeds is toxic for pregnant goats, but levels of seeds less than 4% have little impact on fetal and post birth body development.

The Use of Ultrasonography to Study Teratogenicity in Ruminants: Evaluation of Ipomoea carnea in Goats

BACKGROUND Ipomoea carnea (I. carnea) is a poisonous plant found in Brazil and other tropical countries that often poison livestock. The plant contains the alkaloids calystegines and mainly swainsonine, which inhibit cellular enzymes and cause systematic cell death. The objective of this study was to evaluate the perinatal effects of I. carnea in goats. METHODS Forty-seven pregnant goats were randomly allocated into 5 treatment groups and given the following doses (g/kg BW) of I. carnea: 0 (IC0), 1.0 (IC1), 3.0 (IC3), 5.0 (IC5) and 7.5 (IC7). The treatment animals were given fresh I. carnea from day 27 of gestation to parturition. Weight gains and serum biochemistry were evaluated. Fetuses were evaluated using ultrasonographic measurements. RESULTS Goats from the IC7 group showed clinical signs of poisoning. Ultrasound examination revealed that I. carnea feeding in all treatment groups reduced fetal movement compared to the controls. There was an increase in the total number of birth defects (retrognathia and arthrogyposis) in the IC7 and IC5 groups compared to the controls. CONCLUSION The results show that I. carnea has teratogenic potential in goats. In addition, ultrasounds were useful in evaluating fetotoxicity and teratogenicity.

Maternal Ingestion of Ipomoea carnea: Effects on Goat-Kid Bonding and Behavior.

Ipomoea carnea is a toxic plant found in Brazil and other tropical and subtropical countries and often causes poisoning of livestock. The plant contains the alkaloids swainsonine and calystegines, which inhibit key cellular enzymes and cause systematic cell death. This study evaluated the behavioral effects of prenatal ingestion of this plant on dams and their kids. Twenty-four pregnant goats were randomly allocated into four treatment groups and received the following doses (g/kg BW) of fresh I. carnea: 0 (control group), 1.0 (IC1), 3.0 (IC3), and 5.0 (IC5) from day 27 of gestation until parturition. Dam and kid bonding and behavior were evaluated by several tests, immediately after birth until six weeks of age. Dams from IC3 and IC5 groups spent less time paying attention to the newborn. There was a lack of maternal-infant bonding due to I. carnea intoxication. Kids from treated dams had difficulty in standing, suckling, and in recognizing their mother hours after birth. I. carnea can also compromise the kids’ ability to learn and to retain spatial memory. We suggest that kids from pregnant goats given I. carnea during gestation have significant behavioral alterations and developmental delays that may compromise their survival.

Maternal feed restriction during pregnancy in Wistar rats: Evaluation of offspring using classical and immunoteratology protocols.

Studies have revealed that impairment of the pregnant body weight reduces the fetal body weight and causes minor changes in skeletal development. The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of maternal feed restriction during pregnancy in offspring immune system development. Pregnant Wistar rats were distributed into 5 groups: 1 control in which dams received food ad libitum and 4 experimental groups in which dams were fed restricted amounts of rodent ration (16, 12, 9, or 6 g/rat/day) from the 6th to 17th gestation day. Teratogenicity was assessed using classical teratological evaluation and developmental immunotoxicology protocols. Maternal body weight gain, fetus weight, and placenta weight were reduced for feed-restricted females from the groups fed 12, 9, and 6 g/rat/day (p < 0.05). No pup mortality was observed immediately after cesarean sections among the groups, and no visceral or skeletal malformations were detected. An immunoteratological study revealed an increase in the relative weight of the thymus and an increase in the phorbol myristate-acetate solution-induced hydrogen peroxide release by inflammatory cells in 21-day-old pups. Alterations in the delayed-type hypersensitivity response and the humoral immune response against sheep red blood cells were observed in pups from feed-restricted mothers. Feed restriction in Wistar rats during organogenesis did not promote structural malformations but resulted in offspring with lower birth weights and promoted significant changes in the immune responses of the rat pups.

Flow Cytometry to Evaluate Potential Developmental Toxicants in the Embryonic Stem Cell

Embryonic stem cells (ESC) are widely used due to their unlimited capacity of differentiation into different cell lineages, which makes ESC a viable choice as a toxicology test model. Toxicological analysis using embryonic stem cells (ESC) has become an important tool in toxicology procedures. Regarding toxicological analysis methods, flow cytometry (FC) is one technique designed to detect and evaluate cells in suspension, for example, ESC suspension, thus making possible to study different biological, physical, and/or chemical characteristics of cells. Thus, FC can be very useful for cell toxicology and tumorigenic analyses.

Toxicity of Senna occidentalis seeds in laying hens and its effects on egg production

ABSTRACT Senna occidentalis is a toxic leguminous plant found in many tropical and subtropical regions of the world and causes poisoning mainly in confined animals. The seeds are the most toxic part of the plant and may be present in animal rations. The main toxic component of the S. occidentalis seed is a dianthrone, an anthraquinone-derived compound that affects mitochondrial function. This study evaluated the effects on egg production of low-level contamination of the S. occidentalis in the laying hens’ diet. Forty-eight one-day-old pullets were randomly allocated into two treatment groups: control, birds that received no experimental treatment; and external and internal tegument (ET/IT), birds that received a diet containing 0.2% of ET/IT of S. occidentalis seeds throughout their life cycle (42 weeks). The birds were monitored for clinical signs of poisoning, and the production and quality of eggs were recorded. Necropsies were conducted at the end of the experimental period. None of the layers showed any clinical signs of poisoning, decreases in feed intake or alterations of the body weight gain. A marked reduction in egg production and, consequently, a lower feed efficiency in ET/IT group were measured. Ovaries were the most affected organ in birds from the ET/IT group, and yolk leaking and dysplasia of the inner layer of the vitelline membrane were observed. S. occidentalis was shown to be toxic for laying hens. Considering these results, it is feasible to assume that the constant presence of low concentrations of S. occidentalis seeds in rations represents a threat to the poultry industry.

Intoxication by Cyanide in Pregnant Sows: Prenatal and Postnatal Evaluation

Cyanide is a ubiquitous chemical in the environment and has been associated with many intoxication episodes; however, little is known about its potentially toxic effects on development. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of maternal exposure to potassium cyanide (KCN) during pregnancy on both sows and their offspring. Twenty-four pregnant sows were allocated into four groups that orally received different doses of KCN (0.0, 2.0, 4.0, and 6.0 mg/kg of body weight) from day 21 of pregnancy to term. The KCN-treated sows showed histological lesions in the CNS, thyroid follicle enlargement, thyroid epithelial thickening, colloid reabsorption changes, and vacuolar degeneration of the renal tubular epithelium. Sows treated with 4.0 mg/kg KCN showed an increase in the number of dead piglets at birth. Weaned piglets from all KCN-treated groups showed histological lesions in the thyroid glands with features similar to those found in their mothers. The exposure of pregnant sows to cyanide thus caused toxic effects in both mothers and piglets. We suggest that swine can serve as a useful animal model to assess the neurological, goitrogenic, and reproductive effects of cyanide toxicosis.

Mimosine and cyclophosphamide: a potential new combination therapy used to prevent tumor development

The effects of mimosine (MI), which is an amino acid that is derived from Leucaena leucocephala, were evaluated on the growth of ascitic Ehrlich tumors, and the effects of the combination treatment of MI and cyclophosphamide (CY) on tumor growth were also assessed. Mice were divided into groups that received the following treatments over the course of 20 days: phosphate buffer solution (CO), MI, Ehrlich cells (E), E plus CY (EC), E plus MI (EM) and E plus MI and CY (EMC). No signs of toxicity were detected in the mice from the MI group. The mice from the EMC group showed reductions in body weights when compared with those from the E group. The animals from the EC, EM and EMC groups showed reductions in ascitic volume compared with those from the E group. The mice from the EMC group showed reductions in total cell numbers of ascitic fluid compared with those from the E, EC and EM groups. The combination of MI and CY was the most effective treatment for Ehrlich tumor ascites.