Transplacental Transfer of Primaquine and Neurobehavioral Development of Prenatally Exposed Rats

Table 2

Effects of primaquine administered orally to rats during pregnancy (GD 0–21) on maternal and offspring variables evaluated at birth.

Treatment	Control (6 ml.kg·bw^−1·d^−1)	Primaquine (20 mg.kg·bw^−1·d^−1)	Statistical analysis
Mated females (N)^#	16	21	—
Pregnant females (with implantations), N	11	14	—
Pregnant/mated females (%)	68.8	66.7	ns
Total of implantation sites (N)	110	155	—
Implantations per female (N)^+	10.0 ± 2.8	11.1 ± 4.5	ns
Maternal weight gain (g)
GD 0	249.3 ± 22.4	268.7 ± 28.2	ns
GD 21	323.9 ± 23.5	345.4 ± 43.0	ns
GD 21 wt–GD 0 wt (∆g)	74.6 ± 22.1	76.6 ± 23.9	ns
Pregnancy length (d)	22 (22–23)	22.5 (21–23)	ns
Litter size at birth (N)	10 (5–13)	8 (5–13)	ns
Live pups on PND 1 (N)	94	97	—
Stillbirths (N)	0	2^++	—
Postimplantation losses per litter (N)^#	1.45 ± 1.50	4.14 ± 2.68
Whole-litter losses (N) (%)^+++	0	3 (20.0)
Sex ratio (F/M)	0.98 ± 0.18	1.17 ± 0.15	ns
Pup body weight on PND 1 (g)	6.48 ± 0.25	6.16 ± 0.44	ns

Control rats received ultrapure water (vehicle). ^#Mating confirmed by presence of sperm in the vaginal smear. ⁺Detected after weaning when the mothers were euthanized. ⁺⁺ from one litter. ⁺⁺⁺ % = (whole-litter losses/pregnant females) ×100. Data are mean ± SD or median and range (maximum–minimum). Wherever applicable the litter was the statistical unit of analysis. Means were compared by Student’s t-test and nonparametric data by the Mann-Whitney U test. ns: nonsignificant (). Postimplantation losses = implant sites (N) − litter size at birth (N).