Glycidol modulation of the immune responses in female B6C3F1 mice

The immunotoxic potential of glycidol was evaluated in female B6C3F1 mice u sing a battery of functional assays and three host resistance models. Glyci dol was administered to the animals by oral gavage as a solution in sterile distilled water daily for 14 days at doses of 25, 125 and 250 mg/kg. In ti er I, we observed that glycidol exposure produced a dose-related decrease i n splenocyte IgM antibody-forming cell response to sheep red blood cells (s RBC); the spleen natural killer (NK) cell activity was also decreased. A de crease in B cell proliferative responses to anti-IgM F(ab')(2) and/or inter leukin-4 (IL-4) was observed while the splenocyte proliferative responses t o T cell mitogen ConA and B cell mitogen LPS were not affected. The splenoc yte proliferative response to allogeneic cells as evaluated in the mixed le ukocyte reaction (MLR) to DBA/2 spleen cells was not affected. In tier II, we found that exposure to glycidol decreased the number and percentage of B cells and the absolute number of CD4(+) T cells in the spleen while the nu mber of total T cells, CD8(+) T cells and CD4(+) CD8(+) T cells was not aff ected. The cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response to mitomycin C-treated P81 5 mastocytoma was not affected; the cytotoxic activity of peritoneal macrop hages was not suppressed. Moreover, the host resistance to Listeria monocyt ogenes was not affected although a slight increase in host resistance to St reptococcus pneumoniae was observed. However, exposure to glycidol decrease d host resistance to the B16F10 melanoma tumor model with the maximal tumor formation in lung observed in the high dose group. Overall, these dada sup port the finding that glycidol is an immunosuppressive agent in female B6C3 F1 mice.