Evaluation of embryonic teratogenic effects on fetal growth and development following prenatal exposure to different doses of levetiracetam in albino rats (rattus norvegicus)

Abstract

The teratogenic effects of embryonic contact with different doses of levetiracetam, a second-line anticonvulsant medicine on the growth and development of the fetus remain unclear. Past literature has advocated for further studies on levetiracetam concerning its safety index on growth and development of the fetuses following its prenatal exposure at differing gestational periods and at different dosages. In this study, post-test-only control experimental study design was used.  Animal experimentation and measurement of the fetal growth variables were done in the animal facility situated at the University of Nairobi. The sample size used comprised 30 albino rat dams (Rattus norvegicus). 2 clusters comprising 3 control rats and 27 investigational rats were obtained by dividing these 30 rats into 2 broad study groups. The 27 experimental rats were again split into 3 major sets of 9 rats as low dose, medium dose, and high dose assemblies so as to examine the fetal pregnancy outcomes on different doses. Furthermore, to assess the comparative effects on different pregnancy periods each set of the three-dose assemblies was split into three groups of 3 rats as per the trimesters (Trimester I, trimester II and trimester III.) Fetal growth and development factors that comprised fetal weight, head circumference, bi-parietal diameter, head length, and crown-rump length were collected using organized worksheets, kept, and coded in excel spreadsheets Windows 10, edition 2013. Later they were transferred to SPSS programs windows edition 25 for evaluation. Subsequently, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) together with Tukey’s post hoc multiple comparison tests were used for analysis. The results of all values were conveyed as mean+ standard error of the mean (SEM). It was observed that Levetiracetam affected fetal growth parameters in a time and dose-dependent way. Significant findings comprised those whose P<0.05.