Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2014) 3(5): 448-461 448 Original Research Article Hepatotoxicity and Femoral Chondrodystrophy of Pregnant Mice Infested with Scistosoma mansoni and treated with Praziquantel Hassan I. El-Sayyad 1 *, Osama A. Abbas 2 , Maha F. Soliman 3 , Zahraa A. Greash 2 Mansoura University 1 , Port-Said University 2 , Suez Canal Univeristy 3 , Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Egypt *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Schistosomiasis is the second most common parasitic infection of humans after malaria in terms of public health importance (Abdulla et al., 2007) that infect 200 million people worldwide and are responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths annually (Tran et al., 2006). It is a man-made disease related to watering contact in the agricultural fields and affecting millions of people in developing ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 3 Number 5 (2014) pp. 448-461 http://www.ijcmas.com Keywords Praziquantel Scistosoma mansoni Pregnant Mice; Hepato- toxicity and Femoral Chondro- dystrophy Praziquantel (PZQ) is widely and effectively used in the control of bilharziasis which constitutes a major endemic health problem in Egypt. There is no available work concerned hepatotoxicity and chondrodystrophy of praziquantel with or without bilharzial infestation on pregnant women. The present study aimed to evaluate the hepatotoxicity and chondrodystrophy of PZQ in infested mother mice. Eighty virgin and fertile male albino mice(one male/three females) with an average body weight of 25 to 28 g were used. Mating was carried out, and pregnancy was determined by examining sperm in vaginal smears. Pregnant mice were arranged into four groups; control, praziquantel-treatment ((600 mg/kg) divided into 2 equal doses of 300 mg/kg given 8 hours at 8th day of gestation) and bilharzial infested mother with or without praziquantel-treatment. Pregnant mice were sacrificed at 16 days of gestation and both livers and femoral bone were incised and subjected to histological investigations. PZQ-treatment revealed coagulative necrosis of hepatocytes, increase mitotic figures, leukocytic infiltration around blood vessel and reduction of cartilage cells and thinning of trabecular bone. Also, bilharzial infested maternal liver treated with PZQ showing dissolution of granulomatous lesions, congested blood vessels and restoration of newly-developed chondrocytes and restoration of almost normal epiphyseal cartilage and bone trabeculae. The authors concluded that PZQ-treatment of schistosomal infested mice during gestation showed hazardous impacts on liver bone of mothers which may influence on growth of their fetuses.