Ciclosporin administration during pregnancy induces ultrastructural changes on pancreatic beta-cells of newborn rats.

Ciclosporin (CS) is an immunosuppressive agent used in the prevention of graft rejections and in the management of type 1 diabetes. However, the drug is not without side effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate eventual cytotoxic phenomena in the pancreas of newborn rats whose mothers had been treated with therapeutic doses of CS. For this purpose, 25 female Wistar rats were used, 20 of which were subjected to daily injections of 10 mg/kg BW/day i.p. of CS dissolved in Intralipid, administered during the whole gestational period. The results obtained indicated that CS did not arrest fetal development, even though the number of newborns per mother was reduced when compared to controls. Moreover, mothers and newborn rats were subjected to vacuolation of kidney proximal tubular cells and of the insulin-secreting pancreatic beta-cells. This alteration was more evident in the islet beta-cells of newborn rats. Therefore, CS is not only toxic to the mothers' endocrine beta-cells but also to those of any eventual offspring.