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
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.