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FETAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE RAT FOLLOWING DISRUPTION OF MATERNAL RENAL FUNCTION DURING PREGNANCY
Citation:
Kavlock, R., T. Logsdon, AND J. Gray. FETAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE RAT FOLLOWING DISRUPTION OF MATERNAL RENAL FUNCTION DURING PREGNANCY. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-94/038.
Description:
Pregnant Sprague Dawley rats were exposed on either gestation day 7, 9, 11 or 13 to mercuric chloride (1-4 mg/kg, subcutaneously) in order to evaluate maternal renal pathophysiology as a risk factor for abnormal embryonic and fetal development. ollowing exposure, the magnitude and duration of altered renal function was assessed by urinanalysis. aternal renal function was markedly disrupted for at least 48 hours after treatment and resulted in decreased maternal body weight gains. esidual effects on maternal kidney weight were evident on GD 21 when the females were killed and the fetuses removed and examined for visceral and skeletal development. e did not observe an increased incidence of malformations in the offspring for exposure on any day of gestation. aternal exposure to mercuric chloride slightly impaired fetal growth over several gestational exposure periods, and changed the pattern of rib formation if exposure occurred early in organogenesis. he extent of the changes could not, however, be related to the immediate degree or duration of altered maternal renal function. ather, we found correlations between lasting effects of exposure as measured by maternal renal weight on GD 21 and supernumerary lumbar rib induction on GD 7 and 9; while for the relationship with fetal weight, the strongest correlation with maternal kidney weight occurred following exposure on GD 9 (p 0.01), with weaker correlations (p<0.10) for GD 7 and 13 exposures. aternal serum urea was negatively correlated with fetal weight for the GD 7 exposure.