You are here:
PERINATAL EXPOSURE TO THE PESTICIDE HEPTACHLOR PRODUCES ALTERATIONS IN IMMUNE FUNCTION PARAMETERS IN SPRAGUE DAWLEY RATS
Citation:
Matulka, R. A., A A. Rooney, W C. Williams, C B. Copeland, AND R J. Smialowicz. PERINATAL EXPOSURE TO THE PESTICIDE HEPTACHLOR PRODUCES ALTERATIONS IN IMMUNE FUNCTION PARAMETERS IN SPRAGUE DAWLEY RATS. Presented at Society of Toxicology 42nd Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, March 9-13, 2003.
Description:
PERINATAL EXPOSURE TO THE PESTICIDE HEPTACHLOR PRODUCES ALTERATIONS IN IMMUNE FUNCTION PARAMETERS IN SPRAGUE DAWLEY RATS. R A Matulka1, AA Rooney3, W Williams2, CB Copeland2, and R J Smialowicz2. 1Curriculum in Toxicology, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; 2US EPA, ITB, ETD, NHEERL, RTP, NC, USA; 3NCSU, CVM, Dept of Anatomy, Physiological Sciences and Radiology, Raleigh, NC, USA.
Pesticides, and other environmental contaminants, recently have been implicated as potential causes of recent increases in childhood asthma and leukemia. The objective of this study was to determine the effect that the pesticide heptachlor (H) has on the developing immune system of Sprague Dawley rats. Dams were dosed from gestational day 6 (GD6) through post-natal day 21 (PND21), at which time the pups were weaned and dosed directly with H until PND42. The doses of H were 0 (control), 0.03, 0.1, 0.3, 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg/day. Rats were tested for the delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) response to bovine serum albumin (BSA), the phagocytic ability of peritoneal macrophages, and the IgM and IgG antibody responses to sheep red blood cells (SRBC). H did not affect the DTH response in eight week-old male rats, while the females at eight weeks showed a dose-related increase in the DTH responses from control to 3.0 mg H/kg/day. The phagocytic ability of peritoneal macrophages from 12 week-old rats was suppressed at the lowest dose of H, with higher doses not significantly different from controls. Primary (IgM) antibody responses were significantly suppressed in a dose-dependent manner in eight week old rats treated with H (i.e., a mean log2 titer of 9.0 in controls versus 7.5 in 3.0 mg H/kg/day dose group). Rats re-immunized with SRBC and evaluated for IgG titers revealed a dose-dependent effect, with control rats at a mean log2 titer of 11.3 and the high dose group at a mean log2 titer of 8.1. These results support and extend our earlier work with H, indicating suppression of the primary and secondary response to SRBC following perinatal exposure to H is consistently observed. (This abstract does not reflect EPA policy. Supported in part by the American Chemistry Council under CRADA 0215-02.)