Kim, Chang-Seok;Park, Hae-Mo;Shin, Hun-Tae;Lee, Jang-Woo;Kim, Kyung-Tae;Kim, Pan-Gyi;Lee, Sun-Dong;Han, Sang-Baek;Hahn, Yong-Joo
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This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of Gyoaesamultang in pregnant rats and their fetuses. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were orally administered with the Gyoaesamultang at dose of 5mg/kg/day for 20 days. Pregnant rats were sacrificed at 20th day of gestation, and observed internal and reproductive organs. Approximately, live fetuses in the 20th day of gestation were randomly selected and fixed in 95% ethanol. To observe skeletal malformations, fetuses were stained with alcian blue and alizarin red S. Maternal body weight of Gyoaesamultang treated group has a tendency to increase compared to that of control group. There were no significant difference in internal and reproductive organs. There were no significant changes between two groups in blood chemistry and hematological values. There were no significant changes in number of corpus luteum, implantation, live fetuses and implantation rate, delivery rate, late resorption rate and sex ratio. But Gyoaesamultang administered group showed lower early resorption rate than the control group. Neonatal body weight and number of fetus of Gyoaesamultang group were increased to that of control group. The fetuses of dams treated with Gyoaesamultang didn't showed external malformation. Vertebral and sternal variations were observed in Gyoaesamultang group but, compared to the control, those variations were insignificant. The number of ribs, cervical, thoracic, and lumber were normal. The number of sacral and caudal vertebrae were increased. Fetuses treated with Gyoaesamultang showed significant difference in the number of caudal vertebra(P<0.01). From these results, it can be concluded that Gyoaesamultang showed no toxicity effects on maternal body weight, early resorption rate, and number of live fetuses. There were no significant changes in organ weight, hematological data, reproductive organs. Although skeletal variations were showed in vertebrate and sternum, Gyoaesamultang were shown insignificant changes in bone malformation.