Cytotoxic assessment of silver nanoparticles in embryonic development and kidney tissue in pregnant mice

Regarding the widespread use of silver nanoparticles in medecine and lack of a detailed study of toxicity effects of these particles on fetus, this study was carried out to investigate histopathological changes of the kidneys and also embryonic development following exposure to silver nanoparticles. In this experimental study, thirty five female NMRI mice were randomly divided into five equal groups; i.e. one control group and four experimental groups. The experimental groups intraperitoneally (IP) received silver nanoparticles at concentrations of 50, 100, 200 and 400 mg/ kg. .every other day. On the 17th day of pregnancy, the mice were dissected and their kidneys and embryos tissues were separated and stained with hematoxylin and eosin for histopathological examinations.. Finally, the obtained data was fed into SPSS software (V:16) using statistical tests including Kolmogrof-Smearnof, one-way variance analysis, Dante, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis; and P<0.05 was taken as the significant level. Histopathological assessment of kidney tissue following IP administration of silver nanoparticle indicated pathological changes including congestion, necrosis, inflammatory cell infiltration, vacuolar degeneration compared to the control group. Our findings showed that silver nanoparticles during the gestation period affects fetal organogenesis, evolution of neural structure, liver lobulation and fetal growth retardation. Mean number of somites in groups receiving doses of 200 and 400 mg kg,. significantly reduced compared to the control group (P<0.05). The obtained results suggest that passing of silver nanoparticles through placenta is possible and damage caused by the particles could lead to the deformity or developmental retardation of the fetus.