Evaluation of the potential interaction between methylmercuric chloride and naringenin on pre- and postnatal rat development

The present work aims to examine the potential role of methylmercury (MMC) in inducing developmental toxicity as well as to evaluate the role of naringenin in preventing or alleviating the induced defects. In the present work 80 pregnant rats were divided into four groups (each comprising 20 rats); control group, naringenin (Ng) treated group (50 mg /kg b.wt./day), MMC treated group with 1 mg/ kg bwt and co-treated group with both MMC and Ng at the same dosages. Half of the animals were treated daily from gestational day 7 to 19 day by gastric intubation, and the other half were treated daily from the 7 day of gestation to the postnatal day (PN) 29 by gastric intubation. All animals were killed in the day next to the last given dose. The results indicated that oral administration of naringenin to rats treated with MMC improved the fetal and pups growth rate and markedly reduced the fetal morphological and skeletal abnormalities. Naringenin also improved the percentage of fragmented DNA in fetal and neonatal brain as well as the histpathological lesions observed in cortex of both fetuses and pups maternally treated with MMC.