Chronic oral exposure to a glyphosate-based herbicide impairs female reproductive outcomes in Wistar rats.

GASTIAZORO MP; MILESI MM; LORENZ V; DONA F; DURANDO M; VARAYOUD J

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta de Sociedades de Biociencias; 2021

Glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) are the most globally usedherbicide increasing the environmental exposure risk. The chroniceffects on reproductive outcomes associated with long-term exposureto GBHs remain unexplored. In the present work, we investigated,in Wistar rats, the effects of chronic oral administration of a safedose of a commercial GBH on: 1) body weight and food intake; 2)reproductive performance and feto-placental parameters.Female rats were exposed to GBH through food, in a dose of 2 mgof glyphosate/kg bw/day, from postnatal day 21 (PND21) and during11 weeks. Control group (CON) was provided with a laboratory pelletchow-based paste. Body weight and food intake were registeredalong the exposure. Females at the proestrus stage were caged withmales with proven fertility. We evaluated the pregnancy rate by assessingthe number of pregnant females/number of females housedwith a male x 100. In addition, we determined the reproductive performanceby quantifying the number of corpora lutea, the implantationsites (IS) and the resorption sites on gestational day 19 (GD19).The fetuses and the placentas pairs were removed and weighted.The placental index was calculated as follows: placental weight/fetalbody weight. Last, fetal length and litter size were determined.We detected an increase in body weight of the rats exposed to GBH8 days after the beginning of treatment (PND30). However, not differenceswere found on food intake between CON and GBH-treatedrats. Regarding reproductive performance, we detected a lowernumber of IS in GBH group compared to CON group. Fetal developmentwas impaired, we detect a decrease in weight and length of theABSTRACTS 245fetuses in GBH group. Neither placental weight nor placental index,were altered by GBH treatment. In conclusion, chronic exposure toGBH impaired female fertility and fetal development. We considerthe importance of the evaluation of chronic oral exposure to GBH toshowing additional evidence associated to GBH effects