Assays of embryonic death in normal pregnant mice injected at their different days of gestation with spores of two species of Fungi

Abstract

Spores of the fungi, Helminthosporium orzyae and Aspergillus njger were isolated from the PDA culture medium in sterile distilled water separately and each sample containing 8×10⁶ spores per ml of distilled water was intraperitoneally injected at 1 ml per 100g body weight to 5 individual normal pregnant mice separately in each set at their 4th, 8th and 12th day of gestation against parallelly injected pregnant mice at the same dose and time with sterile solid slant of PDA medium washed distilled water as controls. The embryotoxic effects leading to lethality of developing embryos were assessed by exposing the uteri of the individual treated and control sets of females at their 15th day of gestation. The data revealed significantly high frequency of lethality to developing embryos in each set of pregnant mice treated separately at their 4th, 8th and 12th day of gestation and in the combined data with spores of H. oryzue and A. njger than that of control indicating the embryotoxic potential of spores of each species of fungi. The embryotoxic potential of two species of fungi did not show any significant difference between themselves.