AU - Mohammadi, Narges AU - Bayati, Vahid AU - Nejatbakhsh, Reza AU - Heidari, Mohammad Hasan AU - Dadpay, Masoomeh AU - Tavassol, Azadeh TI - Effect of oral morphine on the liver of Wistar rat fetuses in the second week of development: a histopathological study PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE TA - RJMS JN - RJMS VO - 21 VI - 129 IP - 129 4099 - http://rjms.iums.ac.ir/article-1-3593-en.html 4100 - http://rjms.iums.ac.ir/article-1-3593-en.pdf SO - RJMS 129 AB  -  Background: More than 90% of women use drugs during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to investigate oral morphine-induced histopathological changes in Wistar rat fetuses’ liver. Methods: Animals were divided to 1 control and 3 drug level induced groups. 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 mg/ml of morphine sulphate (99.98%) in drinking water (25 ml) were administered orally to pregnant rats from day 8 to 20. On gestation day 21, fetuses were removed surgically and after removing liver of fetuses, samples of tissue stained by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) method and studied under light microscope. The data evaluated by SPSS software, ANOVA and analysis varieties. Results: In the experimental groups with dose 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 mg/ml of morphine, liver sections appeared with vacuolated hepatocytes, dilated sinusoids, and increased number of kupffer cells, lymphocytes and neutrophils. The results in experimental groups with doses 0.2 and 0.3mg/ml of morphine were significant comparing with control group (p≤ 0.001). Conclusion: The results indicate that the lowest dose of morphine (0.1mg/ml) induced very low toxicity in fetuses but the middle dose (0.2mg/ml) and the high dose of morphine (0.3mg/ml) induced adverse reactions. It is concluded that oral morphine sulphate induces significant histopathological changes in the liver tissue, and the severity of these changes increases with time, period and dosage CP - IRAN IN - LG - eng PB - RJMS PG - 1 PT - Research YR - 2015