Does the Anticholinergic Drug Biperiden Affect Early Neural Tube Development in Chick Embryos?

Objective: Biperiden (BPD) is an anticholinergic agent that acts both centrally and peripherally. It is used to counteract both extrapyramidal side effects of neuroleptic treatment and symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in clinical practice. Current study was layout to determine the potential toxic effect of different doses of Biperiden on neural tube closure in 48 hour chick embryos. Methods: Sixty fertilized eggs were used in the study. All eggs were placed in the incubator and divided into four groups (15 eggs in each); control, BPD 1, BPA 2 and BPD 3. At 28 hr of incubation, three different doses of biperiden were administered subblastodermically. At the end of 48 hr of incubation, all eggs were opened and embryos were dissected and evaluated morphologically and histopathologically. Results: According to these results, the mean crown-rump length and somite number tended to decrease proportionally with the dose. As the dose increases, the number of open neural tube and undeveloped embryos in the experimental groups also increases. There was also a significant difference between the groups in terms of Hamburger-Hamilton stages of embryos evaluated according to the number of somite. Embryos in the control, BPD 1 and BPD 2 groups were observed at stage 13, and those in the BPD 3 group were observed at stage 12. Conclusion: These results showed that Biperiden even in the low dose has teratogenicity on neural tube closure in early chick embryos. The somite numbers and crown-rump length were decreased depending on the dose and Biperiden caused developmental retardation in high doses.