Effect of prenatal methamphetamine administration during gestational days on mice

Background: Methamphetamine (MA) is one of most common illicit drugs which were reported that nearly half of MA consumers are women. MA can cross through placenta and affects pregnancy and fetus development.
Objective: Our aim was to evaluate effects of injected MA on crown-rump length, head and placental circumference, body weight, histological changes and apoptosis in fetus.
Materials and Methods: Twenty-four NMRI pregnant mice were randomly divided into five groups. First, second and third groups were injected intraperitoneally 10 mg/kg/day MA during gestational days (GD): GD1-7, GD8-14, and GD1-14, respectively. Forth group, as sham, was injected saline from GD1-14, and finally control which was received neither MA nor saline. On GD15 cervical dislocated pregnant mice, fetus and placenta were weighed and fetus crown-rump length was measured. Hematoxylin and Eosin staining and TUNEL assay were applied to assess histological changes and apoptosis respectively.
Results: Fetus body weight and crown-rump length showed significant decrease in third compared to first and second groups (p≤0.001). There were significant differences in head circumference in control and sham compared to third group (0.5 (0.5-0.6), 0.6 (0.5-0.8), 0.4 (0.4-0.5) cm respectively, p≤0.001). Also fetus that treated with MA showed lower placenta circumference compared to control and sham groups. Histological changes such as exencephaly, hemorrhage and immature fetus were observed in second and third groups. Apoptotic cells in second and third groups were higher than controls, but differences were not significant.
Conclusion: It seems MA abuse during pregnancy can cause morphological and histological changes in mice fetus but the exact mechanism remains unclear.