Prenatal effects of aqueous plastic extract on offspring

There is a huge plastic industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where plastic wares are widely used. Locally manufactured jerricans were brought from the market and cut into small chips of 0.5 cm in the larger dimension. Four gram chips were extracted with 20 ml normal saline solution in the autoclave for 1 h at 121 degrees C. The extract was prepared daily and administered at a dose of 20 ml/ kg/day i.p. to MFI mice during gestation. The control group was given normal saline. Both groups included at least 20 pregnant mice each. The prenatal effects of the extract were investigated with respect to the gestational period, neonatal mortality, body weight, body growth rate, body length, eye opening, weight of the internal organs, blood enzymes, and nervous system (neuromuscular junction analgesia and behavior) by using the accelerating Rota-rod treadmill (Ugo Basile, Varese, Italy), a hot plate and an automatic reflex conditioner of the offspring. All the results were subjected to t test. The results indicated that prenatally administered aqueous plastic extract increased the percentage of liver weight (p < 0.05), raised the aspartate aminotransferase activity (p < 0.01) and alanine aminotransferase activity (p < 0.05), reduced the gestational period (p < 0.01), reduced the body weight at birth (p < 0.01), reduced the body growth rate (p < 0.01, p < 0.05), and reduced the endurance time on the Rota-rod treadmill (p < 0.01, p < 0.05).