Turkish Neurosurgery 2020 , Vol 30 , Num 4
Effects of Tartrazine on Neural Tube Development in the Early Stage of Chicken Embryos
Aysegul OZDEMIR OVALIOGLU1,Talat Cem OVALIOGLU1,Gokhan CANAZ2,Aysegul ESEN AYDIN1,Sema ARSLAN3,Mehmet SAR4,Erhan EMEL1
1Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, Department of Neurosurgery, Istanbul, Turkey
2Arnavutkoy State Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, Istanbul, Turkey
3Marmara University, Department of Biochemistry, Istanbul, Turkey
4Bakirkoy Dr. Sadi Konuk Research and Training Hospital, Department of Pathology, Istanbul, Turkey
DOI : 10.5137/1019-5149.JTN.28793-19.6 AIM: To investigate the effects of tartrazine exposure on neural tube development, in early stage chicken embryos.

MATERIAL and METHODS: A total of 120 fertilized specific pathogen-free chicken eggs were divided into 4 equal groups (groups 1?4). After 30 hours of incubation, the eggs, except for the Group 1 (control group), were opened under 4X optical magnification. Group 2 was administered physiological saline. Group 3 was administered a middle dose of tartrazin (4.5 mg/kg) at a volume of 20 ?L by the in ovo method, and group 4 was administered a high dose of tartrazine (7.5 mg/kg) using the same process. Incubation was continued until the end of the 72nd hour; all embryos were then removed from the eggs and histopathologically examined.

RESULTS: Of the 120 embryos incubated, normal development and the closed neural tubes were shown in all embryos in group 1; 23 in group 2; 19 in group 3 and; only 9 in group 4. Open neural tubes were found in; 4 embryos in group 2; 5 embryos in group 3 and; 13 embryos in group 4. The neural tube closure defect was found to be significantly higher in group 4 compared to the other groups (p<0.01).

CONCLUSION: Based on our data, tartrazine, as one of the widely used food coloring agent, was seen to cause a neural tube defect in the chicken embryo model. Keywords : Tartrazine, Neural tube defect, Chicken embryo, Food additive, Spina bifida

Corresponding author : Gokhan CANAZ, gokhancanaz@gmail.com