Hadi Tavakkoli, Amin Derakhshanfar and Samaneh Noori Gooshki
The increasing antimicrobial drug resistance of pathogens, together with the increasing need for new antimicrobial agents, call for re-evaluate old antibiotic compounds. One of the alternative treatments for multidrug-resistant bacterial infections is fosfomycin. Toxicopathological effects of fosfomycin compounds have always been a major concern. There is scant information available about the toxicopathological effects of fosfomycin in the fetus. The objective of this study is to determine the macroscopic and microscopic lesions of various dosages of fosfomycin in the chicken embryo since the embryogenesis in chick is similar to human beings. Forty fertile chicken eggs were divided into five equal treatment groups as follows: Group 1: uninjected group. Group 2: needle-injected group; the needle was inserted into the yolk sac without any injection. Group 3: phosphate buffered saline-injected group, whereby individuals were injected with phosphate buffered saline of 0.3 ml/egg. Groups 4 and 5, individuals were likewise injected with fosfomycin-calcium at dosages of 160 and 320 mg/Kg egg-weight/daily, at days 4, 5 and 6 of incubation, respectively. Macroscopic abnormality in size, color, feathers, limb and other external body features in embryos were accompanied by pathological changes in brain, liver, kidney, heart and lung. Based on macroscopic and microscopic findings, it is concluded that fosfomycin at the above-mentioned concentrations are toxic to the chicken embryo in a dose dependent manner. Further studies are needed to clarify the toxic effects of this drug on the development of a human fetus.
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