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2300032 
Journal Article 
Embryotoxicity of organotins 
Buckiova, D; Dostal, M; Hofmannova, V 
1992 
1 
Reproductive Toxicology
ISSN: 0890-6238
EISSN: 1873-1708 
DART/TER/93000232 
6 
2 
eng 
Some di- and tributyltin compounds,used as biocides, possess a remarkable toxicity to the immune system. Therefore, effects of TBTO (bis/tri-a-butyltin oxide) on the developing immune system have been followed. Pregnant randomly bred ICR mice were given TBTO by gavage in a daily dose 0.1 mg/kg body weight either from the 4th to the 17th or from the 11th to the 17th day of pregnancy. The females were allowed to deliver. No signs of embryolethality, postnatal mortality, or postnatal growth retardation of their offspring were observed. Humoral as well as cell-me-diated immune responses of the offspring were assayed at the age of 4 and 8 postnatal weeks. Delayed-type hypersensitivity to sheep red blood cells and primary antibody responses to sheep red blood cells, ovalbumin, and lipopoly-saccharide were suppressed. Also polyclonal proliferative responses of thymocytes and splenocytes differed from controls, and the number of white blood cells was increased. The character of the observed functional deviations of the immune system was dependent on the prolongation of the treatment. Depression of the delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction and changes of proliferative responses of spleen cells and thymocytes were more intensive in the offspring of females treated on days 11 through 17 of pregnancy than in the offspring of females treated from day 4 of pregnancy. A possible explanation could be seen in the fact that effects of the solvent of TBTO (Tween 80:ethanol:saline - 1:2:97) on the immune responses were, in some aspects, opposite to the effects of TBTO. Prenatally induced deviations of the postnatal development of the immune response are a frequent finding with various chemicals and drugs. The above effects of TBTO in a dose as low as 0.1 mg/kg body weight of a female on day 1 of pregnancy are another example of an extreme sensitivity of the developing immune system to toxicants.