Inhibitive effect of vitamin C on embryonic development toxicity induced by formaldehyde in mice

Objective To observe the inhibitive effect of vitamin C(VC) on embryonic development toxicity induced by formaldehyde in mice.Methods Kunming mice embryos were incubated together with formaldehyde(9,27,and 81μmol/L)and VC(100 μg/mL),respectively,with whole embryo culture method.The development of mice embryos was then assessed.Results When the concentration of formaldehyde was 9μmol/L,the increases of head lengh(1.66±0.21mm),cranial arm length(3.48±0.40mm),glutathione(GSH)(47.70±2.12mg/g prot) and malonaldehyde(MDA)(4.27±0.62nmol/mg·prot) were significantly different(P0.05) from those of the control group.When the concentration was 27 μmol/L,the increases of embryo visceral yolk sac(VYS) diameter(4.35±0.65mm),head lengh(1.48±0.30 mm),cranial arm length(3.19±0.43mm),number of arthromera pairs(25.2±1.2) and GSH(40.25±4.38mg/g·prot) and the decrease of MDA(6.29±0.47nmol/mg·prot) were observed with significant diffe-rences(P0.05) compared with that of the control group.VC could improve the indexes but there was no significant diffe-rence between the control group and the VC group(P0.05).The toxic injury induced by formaldehyde(81 μmol/L) could not be improved with VC significantly.Conclusion VC inhibits embryonic development toxicity induced by certain dose of formaldehyde.