Article Details

Background: Benzoic acid and its salts such as sodium benzoate (SB) are used as disinfectants and preservatives in numerous foods, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. The aim of this study was to evaluate the teratogenic effects of SB on the skeletal system of Balb/c mice during pregnancy.

Materials and Methods: Thirty female Balb/c mice were divided into 3 groups, two experimental (I, II) that received daily intraperitoneal injection of 280 or 560 mg/kg of SB, respectively and one control group which received normal saline. All injections were carried out starting 10 days before mating and 6th to 15th of gestational days (GDs). Dams underwent Cesarean section on GD 18 and then morphological studies were done on the offspring’s. All malformed fetuses were stained with alizarin red S and alician blue and assessed with stereomicroscope. Data were analyzed by Anova,Tukey and Mann-Whitney U tests and using version 16 of SPSS software and differences less than 0.05 were considered significant.

Results: Various anomalies were detected in fetuses of experimental groups such as: severe skin hemorrhage, craniofacial deformities, vertebral column defects like scoliosis, limbs defects and neural tube defects.

Discussion: This study revealed that administration of SB before and during pregnancy probably can induce several malformations in the fetuses. Therefore, until further studies, the use of SB-containing preparations might need to be limited in pregnant women.