Effect of a Single Dose of Cadmium on Pregnant Wistar Rats and their Offspring

M DEL C DÍAZ ; NV GONZÁLEZ; S GÓMEZ; MA QUIROGA; R NAJLE; CG BARBEITO

REPRODUCTION IN DOMESTIC ANIMALS (1990)

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2014 vol. 49 p. 1049 - 1056

0936-6768

Cadmium (Cd) is a well-known toxicant targeting manyorgans, among them placenta. This heavy metal also hasembryonary and foetal toxicity. This study was undertaken toanalyse the effect of a single Cd dose administered at 4, 7, 10 or15 days of gestation on the offspring of pregnant ratssacrificed at 20 days of gestation. Cadmium chloride wasadministered subcutaneously at 10 mg/kg body weight toWistar pregnant dams; control animals received a proportionatevolume of sterile normal saline by the same route.Maternal uteri, livers, kidneys and lungs, and foetuses wereexamined at necropsy. Samples of maternal organs and wholefoetuses were collected for histopathologic examination,determination of Cd levels and staining by the Alizarin red Stechnique. Results revealed a clear embryotoxic and a teratogeniceffect of this heavy metal, the former as a significantincrease in the number of resorptions, and the latter assignificant decrease of the gestational sac weight, and the sizeand weight of foetuses of Cd-treated dams as well as inducedmalformations in skull bones, vertebrae and thoracic, andpelvian limbs. The deleterious effects found were similar tothose previously reported for other animal models suggesting ahigh conservation of the pathogenic mechanisms of Cd.Additionally, many of the addressed aspects showed a slightdependence on the time of administration of the toxic thatmight be due to the accumulation of the metal in differentorgans, as we were able to demonstrate by the analysis of itsconcentration.