Research Report Effect of prenatal exposure to diclofenac sodium on Purkinje cell numbers in rat cerebellum: A stereological study Murat Cetin Ragbetli a , Birsen Ozyurt b , Huseyin Aslan c , Ersan Odaci d , Alpaslan Gokcimen e , Bunyamin Sahin f , Suleyman Kaplan g, ⁎ a Department of Histology and Embryology, Yüzüncü Yıl University School of Medicine, Van, Turkey b Department of Anatomy, Gaziosmanpasa University School of Medicine, Tasliciflik Kampusu, Tokat, Turkey c Department of Histology and Embryology, Gaziosmanpasa University School of Medicine, Tasliciflik Kampusu, Tokat, Turkey d Department of Histology and Embryology, Karadeniz Technical University School of Medicine, Trabzon, Turkey e Department of Histology and Embryology, Süleyman Demirel University School of Medicine, Isparta, Turkey f Department of Anatomy, Ondokuz University School of Medicine, Samsun, Turkey g Department of Histology and Embryology, Ondokuz Mayis University School of Medicine, TR-55139, Samsun, Turkey ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Accepted 9 August 2007 Available online 17 August 2007 Diclofenac sodium (DS) is commonly used as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Although several adverse effects are clearly established, it is still unknown whether prenatal exposure to DS has an effect on the development of the cerebellum. In this study, we investigated the total number of Purkinje cells of the cerebellum in a control group and in a DS-treated group of male rats using a stereological method. The DS in a dose of 1 mg/kg daily was intraperitoneally injected to the drug-treated group of pregnant rats beginning from the 5th day after mating for a period of 15 days during pregnancy. Physiological serum at 1 ml dose was intraperitoneally injected to the control group of pregnant rats at the same period. After delivery, male offspring were obtained and each main group was divided into two subgroups that were 4-week-old (4W-old) and 20-week-old (20W-old). Our results showed that the total number of Purkinje cells in offspring of drug-treated rats was significantly lower than in the offspring of control animals. These results suggest that the Purkinje cells of a developing cerebellum may be affected by administration of DS during the prenatal period. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Diclofenac sodium Purkinje cell Cerebellum Male Rat Stereology Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug 1. Introduction Diclofenac sodium (sodium-(O-((2,6-dichlorophenyl)-amino)- phenyl)-acetate) (DS), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), has potent anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anti- pyretic effects (Scholer et al., 1986; Siu et al., 2000; Kudo et al., 2003; Chang et al., 2005). It is widely used for the alleviation of pain, fever and inflammation associated with arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, acute gout, dysmenor- rhoea, menorrhagia, and postoperatively after some surgery (Siu et al., 2000; Beck et al., 2003; Savaser et al., 2005). Treatment with DS may be accompanied by adverse effects such as serious upper gastrointestinal bleeding, platelet dysfunction, convulsions and cardiovascular hazard (Russell, 2001; Liu et al., 2005; Andersohn et al., 2006; Capone et al., 2007). However, the side effect of DS on the development of the BRAIN RESEARCH 1174 (2007) 130 – 135 ⁎ Corresponding author. Fax: +90 362 312 19 19x2265. E-mail address: skaplan@omu.edu.tr (S. Kaplan). 0006-8993/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2007.08.025 available at www.sciencedirect.com www.elsevier.com/locate/brainres