Investigation of embryotoxic and teratogenic effect of hypericum perforatum in pregnant rats

The entire population of depression is an important issue and the prevalence rate of during pregnancy is 18-19%. Hypericum perforatum (HP) is an herbal product that its' popularity has recently been increased and with anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties, its effect has been shown on wound healing, inflammatory bowel disease and depression. There have been no controlled clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of using HP in depressive pregnant women and the safety of fetal exposure. Although fetal exposure of the drugs should be avoided in pregnancy, the understanding of "the herbal product is more harmless" brings a controversial issue in clinics. Therefore, we aimed to investigate teratogenic effects of Hypericum perforatum by clinical, morphological and histological findings from fetuses. Control group has taken only tap water and Hypericum Perforatum treated-groups were with 100 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg mixed Hypericum Perforatum in to drinking water. The treatment started one week before the mating of the rats to assess the pregnancy rate of the groups and continued till the delivery for to see the possible side effects. The results we have are as follows; the pregnancy rate was lower in the drug treatment groups than in the control group and the fetus number were decreased in the treated-groups as well, additionally the delivery time was delayed in the high dose treatment groups. According to our histological evaluations, the presence of hydropic and vacuolar degeneration in the liver tissues of the fetuses applied H&E was found in some places where the inflammatory reactions developed according to the control group, focal necrosis occurred and the necrosis was observed. Hematopoiesis continued in all groups. In the renal tissues, glomeruler diameters decreased according to the control group, absence of flattened capsules, intense congestion, hydropic and hyaline degeneration in tubules were detected. When we applied Masson tricrom staining, we shown that a decrease in the connection zone compared to the control group in the placenta. For INOS staining, IHC method was applied to determine the oxidative damage. Less oxidative damage was seen in low dose treatment (100 mg / kg) than in high dose (300 mg / kg) in liver and kidney tissues. All related data obtained so far has been shown that Hypericum perforatum can be teratogenic and embryotoxic dose dependently. Our work is aimed to investigate the use of Hypericum perforatum in pregnancy. Future studies should be continued for the gain awareness of "rational drug use" with herbal products in pregnancy.