Maternal Toxicity and Ultrastructural Changes of Copper Oxy - Chloride in Pregnant Female Albino Rats

The excess application of COC may have an adverse effect on both animals and human population to better understand the maternal toxicity estimated in pregnant female albino rats, COC administered orally at different doses (1/10 and 1/20 LD50 of COC equivalent to 147 mg/kg bow and 73.5 mg/kg Bw. respectively) daily from day 6 th to day 15 th of pregnancy with daily observation and weighing. The pregnant dams were sacrificed on day 20 th of gestation and blood and tissue samples collected for hematological, biochemical, histopathological, ultrastructural changes examination besides copper residues level determination in the liver tissues. The results showed that there was a significant dose-dependent decrease in the maternal body weight with respect to the control group besides a significant decrease in the metabolic parameters as glucose, total protein, and cholesterol however, there was a significant increase in the liver enzymes, urea and creatinine furthermore there was a severe decrease in the antioxidant biomarkers as SOD, CT, GSH and GST with a significant increase in the level of MDA revealing oxidative stress additionally the results found that the was a sever histopathological and ultrastructural changes in the liver tissue and hepatocytes. Furthermore, the level of copper in the liver tissue increased significantly in treated dams in comparison to control. Such results revealed the potential maternal toxicity of COC fungicide in a dose-dependent manner in female albino rats after the accumulation of copper in the liver tissue that considered as the main target organ.