Efficacy of melatonin on offspring liver maturation in pinealectomized pregnant rats subjected to experimental epilepsy

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: In clinical practice, maternal epilepsy is a disabling disease for newborn infants, but current data concerning the effect of epileptic phenomena in pregnant mothers on newborns are still limited. This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of pinealectomy (Px) and melatonin treatments on the morphological changes in the liver tissue of newborn rats following experimental epilepsy during pregnancy. METHODS: Female Swiss Albino rats were divided into five groups: intact control group; saline control group; epilepsy group; epilepsy plus Px group; and melatonin-treated epilepsy plus Px group. At one month after Px, an acute grand mal epileptic seizure was induced by penicillin-G during their pregnancy in all animals except the control groups. On the neonatal first day, newborn rats were perfused with intracardiac fixative solution, and then livers were removed and processed for toluidine blue, periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling (TUNEL) reactivity. RESULTS: Normal migration and hepatic maturation were determined in the postnatal rat liver in the control groups, while the morphological structure of the liver in the epilepsy and epilepsy plus Px groups corresponded to the early embryonic period. In the melatonin-treated epilepsy plus Px group, the number of TUNEL positive cells decreased significantly compared to both epilepsy and epilepsy plus Px groups; however, there was no statistically significant difference from the control groups as a result of melatonin activity. CONCLUSIONS: Some histological findings consistent with chronic fetal distress in newborns of mother rats with epilepsy and Px were observed. Melatonin could be a candidate protective drug for the development of liver tissue in pregnant patients with epilepsy.