Intrauterine exposure to omeprazole increases the risk of teeth morphological anomalies in the offspring of a murine model

Conditions experienced in early life have long-lasting effects on offspring health. Despite this, little is known about how maternal exposure to drugs during pregnancy affects offspring teeth morphogenesis. In humans, omeprazole is a common drug used to mitigate Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. Importantly, omeprazole is a non-specific proton-pump inhibitor, which may inhibit the proton pumps expressed in the developing tooth germ. To date, however, the effects of intrauterine life exposure to omeprazole on offspring tooth development remain unknown. In this study, we addressed this gap in a murine model. Pregnant female Swiss mice were exposed to daily doses of 40 mg/kg of omeprazole from the 5th to the 17th day of pregnancy and the effects of such exposure on offspring odontogenesis parameters such as morphological abnormalities, disruptions in the ameloblast and odontoblast layers and the presence of dentin matrix were measured. Omeprazole exposure significantly increased the prevalence (control: 21.6%; treatment: 60%; p = 0.001) and the risk (posterior mean and 95% credible interval; control: 0.230 [0.129; 0.347]; treatment: 0.593 [0.449; 0.730]) of offspring teeth morphological abnormalities, although there were no statistically significant effects of omeprazole exposure on other parameters of tooth development. These findings suggest that there are potential side-effects to offspring oral health of omeprazole use during pregnancy.