© 1985 Oxford University Press
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Neonatal and Maternal Body Burdens of Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) in Mice: Gestational Exposure and Lactational Transfer1
Toxicology Branch, Inhalation Toxicology Division, Health Effects Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27711
Neonatal and Maternal Body Burdens of Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) in Mice: Gestational Exposure and Lactational Transfer. COURTNEY, K. D., and ANDREWS, J. E. (1985). Fundam. Appl. Toxicol. 5, 265277. Hexachlorobenzene (HCB), a ubiquitous lipophilic pollutant, was readily transferred in the milk of lactating dams to their suckling neonates. Pregnant CD-1 mice were treated during gestation, and the body burdens of HCB in the neonates and the dams were determined during lactation. Also, neonates from dams treated with HCB during gestation were cross-fostered at birth to dams treated with corn oil during gestation. The body burdens of HCB were greater in the neonates exposed to HCB by lactational transfer than the neonates exposed only by gestational transfer. In many tissues, the concentration of HCB in the pups from full litters was similar to that in pups from litters reduced to two pups per litter. Lactational transfer of HCB from the dams to the pups was a major route of excretion in that 95% of HCB was depleted during 20 days of lactation. HCB depletion was similar in dams with whole litters, and those with litters reduced to two pups.