Morphometric study on the endometrium of ethanol-treated mice (Mus musculus) supplemented with folic acid.

Abstract

Ethanol is one of the most potent and common teratogens known. It can also affect fecundity and reproductive health. This study aimed to determine the correlation between endometrial morphology and ethanol consumption, leading to non-implantation. Folic acid was used as a mitigating factor that might offset the detrimental effects of ethanol on the uterus. 48 five-week old female ICR mice were divided into the control, ethanol, low dosage folic acid, and high dosage folic acid groups. After two weeks of treatment, during proestrous, the female mice were sacrificed and the uteri harvested for histological serial sectioning. The method of Salehnia et al. (2006) was used to assess the following: surface epithelial thickness, endometrial thickness, glandular epithelial thickness, and gland diameter. Statistical tests revealed a significant decrease in the gland diameter of the endometrium of mice which were fed folic acid supplements. Folic acid is known to increase progesterone levels, and high progesterone levels result in smaller gland diameters as discussed by Wang et al. (2007). The results showed that the treatments with folic acid, irrespective of the dosage, were able to prevent a decrease in progesterone levels brought about by the consumption of ethanol. This treatment may counter the detrimental effect of ethanol on endometrial morphology and female reproductive health.