Developmental immunotoxic effects of prenatal atrazine exposure.
Authors
Rowe-AM; Brundage-KM; Schafer-R; Barnett-JB
Source
Toxicologist 2004 Mar; 78(S-1):10
Abstract
Atrazine, 2-chloro-4-ethylamino-6-isopropylamino-s-triazine, (ATR) is the most heavily used herbicide in the United States with over 70 million pounds of atrazine applied annually and it is the most common herbicidal contaminant of ground water in agricultural areas. It is our goal to characterize the effects of prenatal atrazine exposure on the developing mammalian immune system. We hypothesie that in utero exposure to ATR will result in a persistent and potentially debilitating effect on the organism's immune system. Using the Balb/c mouse as a model we ex-posed pregnant female mice to ATR for 21 days starting at day 10 of gestation. ATR or placebo was administered via a time-release pellet implanted subcutaneously. The matrix of the pellet allowed for the daily release of 0.7mg of atrazine for 21 days. The pellets were inserted into the mothers at day 10 post coitus. The resulting offspring were immunized with heat killed S. pneumoniae (HKSP) between 9 and 10 weeks of age. Two weeks following immunization the spleens were harvested, and the splenocytes were phenotypically characterized by flow cytometry. The number of B-cells secreting HKSP-specific antibodies was enumerated via ELIspot analysis. Male offspring had a statistically significant increase in the number anti-HKSP secreting B-cells compared to the controls. There was not a statistically significant change in the number of total splenocytes or the number of CD4 + , CD8 + or B220 + splenocytes. However, atrazine treated mice possessed an increased percentage of CD4 + splenocytes and a decrease in CD8 + splenocytes. Female off-spring did not possess a statistically significant change in IgM production com-pared to controls. And unlike the males, the female offspring had a statistically significant increase in the percent of B220 + splenocytes compared to the controls. These results demonstrate a gender-dependant immunotoxic effect of prenatal exposure to ATR on the offspring.
Keywords
Immunotoxins; Exposure-levels; Agricultural-industry; Agricultural-chemicals; Water-analysis; Immune-system-disorders; Occupational-exposure; In-utero-studies; Laboratory-animals; Animal-studies; Animals; Herbicides
Identifying No.
Grant-Number-R21-OH-007686
Source Name
The Toxicologist. Society of Toxicology 43nd Annual Meeting and ToxExpo, March 21-25, 2004, Baltimore, Maryland
Performing Organization
West Virginia University
