Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T21:15:25.739Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Embryotoxicity and fetotoxicity following intraperitoneal administrations of hexavalent chromium to pregnant rats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2010

Neila Marouani ,
Olfa Tebourbi ,
Moncef Mokni ,
Mohamed Tahar Yacoubi ,
Mohsen Sakly ,
Moncef Benkhalifa  and
Khémais Ben Rhouma
Neila Marouani
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Physiologie Intégrée, Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, 7021 Jarzouna. Tunisia.
Olfa Tebourbi
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Physiologie Intégrée, Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, 7021 Jarzouna. Tunisia.
Moncef Mokni
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Physiologie Intégrée, Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, 7021 Jarzouna. Tunisia.
Mohamed Tahar Yacoubi
Affiliation:
Service d'Anatomie et de Cytologie Pathologiques, Hôpital Universitaire Farhat Hached, 4000 Sousse. Tunisia.
Mohsen Sakly
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Physiologie Intégrée, Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, 7021 Jarzouna. Tunisia.
Moncef Benkhalifa
Affiliation:
ATL R&D. Reproductive Biology and Genetics Laboratory. Paris La Verrière, France and Unilabs Group Geneva.
Khémais Ben Rhouma*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Physiologie Intégrée, Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, 7021 Jarzouna. Tunisia.
*
1All correspondence to: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Heavy metals are omnipresent in the environment, and industrial use has greatly increased their presence in soil, water and air. Their inevitable transfer to the human food chain remains an important environmental issue as many heavy metals cause a range of toxic effects, including developmental toxicity. Administration of chromium VI (1 and 2 mg/kg as potassium dichromate) through intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection during organogenesis (days 6 to 15 of gestation) in rats revealed embryo- and fetotoxic effects. Reduced fetal weight, retarded fetal development, number of fetuses per mother and high incidences of dead fetuses and resorptions in treated mothers were also observed. Gross morphological abnormalities, such as displayed form of edema, facial defect, lack of tail, hypotrophy, severs subdermal haemorrhage patches and hypotrophy of placenta were observed in fetuses after chromium VI-treated mothers. A skeletal development of fetuses presented an incomplete ossification in nasal, cranium, abdominal or caudal bones in rats treated with 1 mg/kg of chromium, whereas rats treated with 2 mg/kg showed ossification and absence of the sacral vertebrae compared with the control. At a higher dose of chromium, histological changes were found in fetuses with atrophy of theirs vital organs. Placental histological observations revealed a pronounced morphological alteration, with atrophy of decidual cells, a degenerated of chorionic villi and hypertrophy of blood lacuna. The present study suggests a risk to the developing embryo when the mother is exposed to a high concentration of chromium VI during organogenesis.

Keywords

EmbryotoxicityHexavalent chromiumMalformationsPlacentaSkeletal
Type
Research Article
Information
Zygote , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , August 2011 , pp. 229 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bailey, M.M., Boohaker, J.G., Sawyer, R.D. et al. (2006). Exposure of pregnant mice to chromium picolinate results in skeletal defects in their offspring. Birth Defects Res. 77, 244–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Battista, M.C., Oligny, L.L., St-Louis, J. & Brochu, M. (2002). Intrauterine growth restriction in rats is associated with hypertension and renal dysfunction in adulthood. Am. J. Physiol-Endoc. M. 283, 124–31.Google ScholarPubMed
Coogan, T.P., Squibb, K.S. & Motz, J. (1991). Distribution of chromium within cells of blood. Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol. 108, 157–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danielsson, B.R.G., Hassoun, E. & Dencker, L. (1982). Embryotoxicity of chromium: distribution in pregnant mice and effects on embryonic cells in vitro. Arch. Toxicol. 51, 233–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domingo, J.L. (1994). Metal-induced developmental toxicity in mammals: a review. J. Toxicol. Environ. Health. 42, 123–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
E.P.A. (1998). Toxicological Review of Hexavalent Chromium. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
European Commission. (2005). European Union Risk Assessment Report: Chromium Trioxide, Sodium Chromate, Sodium Dichromate, Ammonium Dichromate and Potassium Dichromate. European Commission, JRC, IHCP, ECB, Luxembourg.Google Scholar
Franklin, J. & Brent, R. (1960), Interruption of uterine blood flow: a new technique for the production of congenital malformations. Comparison of the eighth, ninth, and tenth days of gestation. Surg. Forum 11, 415–6.Google ScholarPubMed
Gale, T.F. (1982). The embryotoxic response to maternal chromium trioxide exposure in different strains of hamsters. Environ. Res. 29, 196–203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garris, D. (1984). Intrauterine growth of the guinea pig fetal-placental unit throughout pregnancy: regulation by utero-placental blood flow. Teratology 29, 93–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gluckman, P.D. & Harding, J.E. (1997). The physiology and pathophysiology of intrauterine growth retardation. Horm. Res. 48, 11–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iyer, P., Gammon, D., Gee, J. & Pfeifer, K. (1999). Characterization of maternal influence on teratogenicity: an assessment of developmental toxicity studies for the herbicide yanazine. Regul. Toxicol. Pharm. 29, 88–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Junaid, M., Murthy, R.C. & Saxena, D.K. (1996a). Embryo-toxicity of orally administered chromium in mice: exposure during the period of organogenesis. Toxicol. Lett. 84, 143–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kanojia, R.K., Junaid, M. & Murthy, R.C. (1996). Chromium induced teratogenicity in female rat. Toxicol. Lett. 89, 207–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kanojia, R.K., Junaid, M. & Murthy, R.C. (1998). Embryo and fetotoxicity of hexavalent chromium: a long-term study. Toxicol. Lett. 95, 165–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kawanishi, S., Hiraku, Y., Murata, M. & Oikawa, S. (2002). The role of metals in site-specific DNA damage with reference to carcinogenesis. Free. Radic. Biol. Med. 32, 822–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, C.K., Lee, J.T. & Yu, S.J. (2009). Effects of cadmium on the expression of placental lactogens and Pit-1 genes in the rat placental trophoblast cells. Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 298, 11–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
New, D. & Coppola, P. (1977). Development of a placental blood circulation in rat embryos in vitro. J. Embryol. Exp. Morph. 37, 227–35.Google ScholarPubMed
Norseth, T. (1981). The carcinogenicity of chromium. Environ. Health Perspect. 40, 121–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nriagu, J.O. & Pacyna, J.M. (1988). Quantitative assessment of worldwide contamination of air, water and soils by trace metals. Nature 333, 134–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pribluda, L.A. (1963). Chromium content of the long bones of rats at different stages of pregnancy. Dokl. Akad. Nauk B. SSR. 7, 206–12.Google Scholar
Sankaramanivel, S., Jeyapriya, R., Hemalatha, D. et al. (2006). Effect of chromium on vertebrae, femur and calvaria of adult male rats. Human Exp. Toxicol. 25, 311–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schardein, J.L. (2000). Chemical-induced Birth Defects. Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, NY.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shmitova, L.A. (1978). The course of pregnancy in women engaged in the production of chromium and its compounds (in Russian). Sverdlovsk 19, 108–11.Google Scholar
Shmitova, L.A. (1980). Content of hexavalent chromium in the biological substrates of pregnant women and women in the immediate postnatal period engaged in the manufacture of chromium compounds (in Russian). Gig. Tr. Prof. Zabol. 2, 33–5.Google Scholar
Stohs, S.J. & Bagchi, D. (1995). Oxidative mechanisms in the toxicity of metal ions. Free Radic Biol Med. 18, 321–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tipton, I.H. (1960). The distribution of trace metals in the human body. In: Seven, M.J. & Johnson, L.A. (eds), Metal-Binding in Medicine, Lippincott, Philadelphia. pp. 27–42.Google Scholar
Von Burg, R. & Liu, D. (1993). Chromium and hexavalent chromium. J. Appl. Toxicol. 13, 225–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilbur, S., Ingerman, L., Citra, M., Osier, M. & Wohlers, D. (2000). Toxicological Profile for Chromium. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Atlanta, Giorgia.Google Scholar
Woodall, S.M., Johnston, B.M., Breier, B.M. & Gluckman, P.D. (1996). Chronic maternal undernutrition in the rat leads to delayed postnatal growth and elevated blood pressure of offspring. Pediatres 40, 438–43.Google ScholarPubMed
Xu, J., Bubley, G.L., Detrick, B., Blankenship, L.J. & Patierno, S.R. (1996). Chromium (VI) treatment of normal human lung cells results in guanine-specific DNA polymerase, DNA–DNA cross-links and S-phase blockade of cell cycle. Carcinogenesis. 17, 1511–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed