EN
The embryotoxicity of gentamicin was evaluated with rat whole embryo culture (WEC) assay. Rat embryos displaying 1-3 somites were explanted on gestation day (GD) 9.5 and cultured for 48 h in rat serum. Gentamicin sulfate was added to the culture medium at a concentration of 1, 10 and 100 μg/ml. At the end of the cultivation five endpoints were evaluated for each viable embryo: yolk-sac diameter, crown-rump length, head length, somites number and morphological score. Gentamicin at the concentration of 100 μg/ml was embryotoxic and caused growth retardation in rat embryos. At the concentration of 10 μg/ml about 45% of embryos showed haematomas. The lowest dose of antibiotic (1 μg/ml) did not interfere with embryonic development in vitro.