Comparison of toxicity and teratogenic effects of salen and vo-salen on chicken embryo.

OBJECTIVES: The toxic and teratogenic effects of salen (C16H16N2O2) and salen vanadium oxide (VOS) (C16H14N2O3V) were evaluated against chicken embryos along with chicken hepatic and fibroblastic cells in vitro cultures.

METHODS: Salen and VOS complexes were injected in the following concentrations: 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, and 300 μM/egg for salen and 7.5, 15, 75, 120, 150, 240, and 300 μM/egg for VOS. In order to screen for skeletal malformations, the alizarin red clearing and staining method was employed. For studying the cytotoxic effects of these compounds, hepatic and fibroblastic cells were cultured and treated.

RESULTS: Our results show that injecting salen with various concentrations leads to a significant increase in embryonic mortality. Skeletal and morphological malformations resulting from salen injections included ectopic viscera and club foot. Our results show that embryonic mortality increased relative to the control group. In addition, alizarin red staining showed skeletal malformations like deletion of caudal vertebrae.

DISCUSSION: Our comparison showed that salen was a stronger teratogen than VOS, which may be due roles of the vanadium element, whose derivatives show physiological particulars and at low concentrations plays anticancer specifications without toxic effect.

CONCLUSION: Results show that chicken embryos were sensitive to the toxicity of salen and VOS, and these compounds can affect the growth and ossification of the chicken embryos. Moreover, the cytotoxicity of salen and VOS shows that the viability of both salen and VOS-treated cells significantly decreased in a dose-dependent manner.