[Experimental study on the influence of sodium glutamate on embryonal brain development of mouse]

The main component of gourment powder is a typical excitatory amino acid. Its neurotoxic action has been attended extensively. Healthy Kunming strain mice were used in this study. Sodium glutamate was injected into peritoneal cavity from the fourth day of gestation (at dosages of 60, 30 or 10 mg/kg every other day). The embryonal mice were dissected at the eighteenth day of gestation. The brain of embryonal mouse was removed, weighted, and fixed in Carnory's solution. Routine paraffin section was made. HE, Feulgen and Nissl staining methods were used for morphological observation. The ash values of 100 neurons of cerebral cortex of Feulgen and Nissl staining were randomly measured with an automated image analyser. The results showed that there was no morphological change in the experimental and control group. There was no significant differece between experimental groups and control group in the parameters observed (P > 0.05). It was suggested that sodium glutamate was not harmful to embryonal brain development of mouse.