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Subchronic/chronic toxicity of 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-heptachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (HpCDD) in rats. Part I. Design, General Observations, Hematology, and Liver Concentrations

  • Matti Viluksela
  • , Bernhard U. Stahl
  • , Linda S. Birnbaum
  • , Karl Werner Schramm
  • , Antonius Kettrup
  • , Karl K. Rozman
  • University of Kansas Medical School
  • National Institute for Health and Welfare
  • Helmholtz Zentrum München German Research Center for Environmental Health
  • Western Ecology Division

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

Groups of 20 male and 20 female adult Sprague-Dawley rats were given five different doses of 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-heptachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (HpCDD). Total doses for males and females (30.9/18.5, 370/222, 2222/1333, 6667/4000, and 10000/6000 μg/kg) were divided into four daily lending doses and six biweekly maintenance doses. Positive controls were administered 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD, total dose 70/41.9 μg/kg). Liver concentrations, as determined by GC/MS, reflected quite accurately the calculated dose ratios. The dosing period was 13 weeks, after which half of the rats were necropsied and the rest provided with an off-dose period of another 13 weeks. Body weight gain was dose-dependently reduced throughout the study. Mortality occurred dose-dependently, starting on Day 22 and continuing until the end of the off-dose period. Mortality rates at the end of the off-dose period were 90 and 40% for males and 60 and 10% for females in the two highest dose groups. Clinical signs and necropsy findings suggested that the cause of death was related to wasting (early deaths), gastrointestinal and nasal hemorrhage (between Days 64 and 126), or anemia (late deaths, after Day 111). Prothrombin times were prolonged intermittently, mainly at the highest dose of HpCDD. Platelet counts were dose-dependently decreased at the two highest doses of HpCDD and in the TCDD-treated soup. This study demonstrates that the relative potency derived from acute toxicity studies is the same as that observed in this subchronic/chronic toxicity study of HpCDD and TCDD, confirming the validity of 0.007 as the toxic equivalency factor TEF) for HpCDD, which is in good agreement with the international TEF of 0.01.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)207-216
Number of pages10
JournalToxicology and Applied Pharmacology
Volume146
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1997
Externally publishedYes

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