Pregnancy-associated retinal diseases are conditions that may occur uniquely in pregnancy or, more commonly, general conditions that may worsen or alter during pregnancy. However, there are currently no widely accepted, precise clinical guidelines regarding its management during pregnancy. Ranibizumab (RBZ) is marketed worldwide for the treatment of visual impairment. Thus, the purpose of the study was to evaluate the teratogenic effects of Ranibizumab in pregnant female albino rats. Sixteen pregnant female rats were divided into 2 equal groups each containing eight rats: Control group that received 0.5 ml of saline intravitreal and Ranibizumab treated group that received 1.0 mg/eye intravitreal on gestational days 7 and 15. On the 20th day of gestation, fetuses were delivered by caesarean section and the uterine horns were carefully inspected. The number of implantation sites, the resorption sites, live and dead fetuses was counted. The weight of the fetuses was recorded, and each fetus was carefully examined for any apparent external gross as well as any internal organs and skeletal abnormalities. The results indicated that Ranibizumab is lethal to embryos and fetuses as evident by inducing pre implementation loss as well as early and late post implementation resorption. Fetal growth retardation was the main change observed in comparison to that of the control. No external gross abnormalities were observed. As regard internal abnormalities, Razor and histological sections showed that Ranibizumab induced moderate dilatation of the lateral ventricles, small malformed lungs, malformed heart with large haematoma, haemorrhagic liver spots, shrunken stomach, and cleft palate. Thus, Ranibizumab may be considered teratogenic and should not be used during pregnancy unless the expected benefit outweighs the potential risk to the fetus. |
