[Pre-embryo development in rats treated with oxcarbazepine in the first four days after insemination]

Oxcarbazepine is a highly efficacious antiepileptic drug which has very few side effects and has been poorly investigated as to its effects during human and animal gestation.

To verify if the administration of oxcapazepine to female rats in the first four days after fertilization alters the viability or development of the pre-embryo.

Wistar rats were treated with 20 or 200mg oxcarbazepine/Kg body weight by oral gavage, 1,2,3,or 4 days after insemination or, consecutively, from the first to de fourth day aiming at very fine the amount and the development up to the expanded blastocyst stage. Maternal body weight and signs such as hair bristling and alteration of the locomotion activity were observed in order to verify any signs of maternal toxicity. A number of corpora lutea and ovaries weight were noted for the analysis of the animal reproductive capacity.

Neither maternal body weight losses nor any physical alteration indicative of discomfort to the rats was observed. Ovaries weight and number of corpora lutea did not differ between treated and control animals. The average of pre-embryos per mother, the index of embryonic losses, the proportion of expanded blastocysts in relation to the total number of pre-embryos and the average of expanded blastocyst/mother did not differ between treated and control animals.

The data indicate that oxcarbazepine administered to female rats following the therapeutic procedure mentioned above, did not show any toxic effect on the mother and did not alter the pre-embryo development.