TOXICOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF AROCLOR-1254 INGESTION BY FEMALE RHESUS(MACACA-MULATTA) MONKEYS AND THEIR NURSING INFANTS - PART-3 - POST-REPRODUCTION AND PATHOLOGICAL FINDINGS

A group of 80 menstruating rhesus (Macaca mulatta) monkeys were random ly allocated to four similar rooms (20 monkeys/room) and then to one o f five dose groups (four females/dose group/room). Each day the monkey s self-ingested capsules containing doses of 0, 5, 20, 40 or 80 mu g A roclor 1254/kg body weight. After 25 months of continuous dosing, appr oximately 90% of the treated females had attained a qualitative pharma cokinetic steady state with respect to the concentration of polychlori nated biphenyl (PCB) in their nuchal fat pad. Concurrently, sebaceous glands were being examined for changes analagous to chloracne. Subsequ ently, the females were paired with untreated males. The infants' bloo d PCB levels at birth were not correlated with its dam's dose or blood PCB level. However, there was an association between an infants prewe aning blood PCB levels and its dam's dose and PCB milk levels. After w eaning, the infants were not dosed with PCB. The half-life for the PCB in the infants' blood was determined and found to be slightly more th an 15 wk. After 6 yr on test, three monkeys from the 0, 5, 20 and 40 m u g dose groups were randomly allocated to a depletion study to ascert ain the half-lives of specific PCB congeners (Mes ct al., Chemosphere 1995, 30, 789-800). Concurrently, necropsies began of the remaining fe males, and of seven infants from the treated darns and four infants fr om the control dams, which had attained an age of 2 yr. Approximately 3 yr later, the depletion monkeys were necropsied. The only statistica lly significant treatment-related pathological changes found during th e study were in the adult females, in which an involution of the sebac eous glands and a dose related increase in liver weight due to hyperpl asia were evident. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.