Evaluation of inhibitory effect of caffeine on bone morphogenesis in pregnancy in a model of rat embryos

High intake of caffeine and its side effects have attracted attention. Caffeine used by pregnant and breast-feeding women can enter the baby's body through placenta and milk. There have been many studies on the effects of caffeine on bone tissue with conflicting results. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of caffeine on fetal rat femur bone.
Material and Fetuses of female N-MRI rats were selected and divided into control (n=84) and caffeine treated (n=89) groups. We selected randomly 4 fetuses of every rat, one for skeletal abnormalities, one for evaluation of femur bone, the third and 4th fetuses were used for histological examination (H & E staining and Alcianblue-Alizarin R/S), and morphometric and biochemical studies respectively.
According to the findings of this study, fetal weights, rate of bone formation in the femur bone, concentration of phosphorus, zinc, magnesium and calcium in femur as well as the length of ossified bone and total area of the femur bone in the treatment group showed a significant decrease. Also we found a significant decrease in femoral bone length. Periosteum area/total area ratio in the cross section showed a slight increase in the treatment group which was not significant.
According to the results of this study, caffeine can cause detrimental effects on bone formation and factors such as duration, doses and time of consumption of caffeine can influence the occurrence of anomalies in the fetus.