THE BEHAVIORAL TERATOGENIC EFFECT OF CIMETIDINE ON THE OFFSPRINGS OF ALBINO RATS

ABSTRACT

The concern of this research was the Behovioural teratogenic effects of cimetidine on the offspring’s of Albino Rats. It was designed to test if cimetidine will have effect on offspring born to mothers who took cimetidine during gestation period. Sample of this study comprises of 3 pregnant albino rats which were randomly assigned into three (3) groups, grove A B and C. group A is the control group that did not receive any treatment why group B and C were the experimental group that received the experimental treatment. The experimental group B was given 2ml of cimetidine injection with caroler daily i.e. 1ml of cimetidine injection in the morning another 1ml of cimetidine injection in the evening. The experimental group C was given 4ml of cimetidine injection with a caroler daily i.e. 2ml of cimetidine injection in the morning and another 2ml of cimetidine injection in the evening their gestation period. 19 pups littered by the 3 female albino rats of both the control group and experimental groups were also used as the subject in the study. Three hypothesis were advanced and tested in this study, Hypothesis one which stated that there will be a significant difference between the offspring’s of albino rats who were injected with cimetidine to those morn to mothers who were not injected with cimetidine on a T-maze test. This was confirmed [DF (2,9)=33.96,P<.01]. hypothesis two which stated that offspring’s of albino rats who were injected with cimetidine during gestation will significantly perform low on the performance ability test (classical maze test) than those born to mother who were not injected was also tasted and confirmed [DF (2,9)=14/15, P<. 05]. The third hypothesis which stated that offspring’s born to albino rats who were injected with cimetidine during gestation will have a significant low birth weight than those offspring’s of mother who were not injected with cimetidine during gestation. Data was analyzed using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). It was therefore recommending that women who used cimetidine should stay away from it uses during pregnancy, because it is a teratogenic agent and could cause harm or impairment to their offspring’s.