THE EVALUATION OF DEVELOPMENTAL TOXICITY OF CHEMICALS EXPOSED OCCUPATIONALLY USING WHOLE-EMBRYO CULTURE

Citation
Sf. Zhao et al., THE EVALUATION OF DEVELOPMENTAL TOXICITY OF CHEMICALS EXPOSED OCCUPATIONALLY USING WHOLE-EMBRYO CULTURE, The International journal of developmental biology, 41(2), 1997, pp. 275-282
Citations number
38
Categorie Soggetti
Developmental Biology
ISSN journal
02146282
Volume
41
Issue
2
Year of publication
1997
Pages
275 - 282
Database
ISI
SICI code
0214-6282(1997)41:2<275:TEODTO>2.0.ZU;2-Y
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to employ the whole embryo culture (WEC) system to evaluate the developmental toxicity of industrial chemicals . Five chemicals including lead, cadmium, vinyl chloride, 12-dichloroe than, and carbon disulphide were tested in our laboratory both in vitr o and in vivo (except lead). In vitro studies showed that cadmium and lead were teratogenic in the rat; whilst carbon disulphide, 1,2-dichlo roethan and vinyl chloride mainly induced embryo growth retardation. T he in vitro effects on development of the five industrial chemicals we re similar to the effects in vivo. The in vitro effects were studied b y three different exposure routes, direct exposure-chemicals added to the culture medium; indirect exposure-serum prepared from treated rats then used as culture medium, and pre-exposure-embryos treated materna lly then explanted into control (untreated) culture medium. Comparing these three different exposure routes suggests that the last exposure route is the most effective when using WEC to evaluate developmental t oxicity of industrial chemicals. The effects on embryo development of culturing in sera prepared from subjects occupationally exposed to ant ineoplastic drugs (ADs) was also tested by the WEC system. Embryos wer e cultured with human serum that was thought to contain ADs or ADs' me tabolic materials (serum taken from nurses routinely handling ADs), to evaluate the effects of ADs on embryo development. Embryos (9.5-day) cultured with serum from 11 female nurses who had been handling ADs fo r 2-17 years in the oncology department all survived, but showed sligh t growth retardation. Embryos cultured with serum from 30 healthy and unexposed people served as controls and embryo development in their se rum was normal.