The effect of nucleoside anticancer drugs on the development of mouse embryos

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of two nucleoside anticancer drugs, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and 5-azacitidine (5-aza), on the development of mouse embryos. The study was performed as described following: (a) mouse embryos were culture in CZB medium supplemented with 5-FU or 5-aza; (b) mouse embryos derived from 5-FU or 5-aza treated mice were cultured in CZB medium. The developmental ability of mouse embryos cultured in vitro was used to assess the effect of two drugs on the development of mouse embryos. (c) female mice were treated with 5-FU, the rate of abnormal neonatal mice was used to assess the teratogenicity of 5-FU. The results showed that both drugs could prevent mouse embryos developing in vitro; moreover, most of embryos derived from 5-FU treated mice lost developmental ability, but few of these embryos could still develop to term, and neonatal mice did not exhibited abnormal phenotype.