US EPA

5326116 

Technical Report 

Convulsive action of small single oral doses of the insecticide lindane 

Hulth, L; Larsson, M; Carlsson, R; Kihlstrom, JE 

1976 

2 

133-137 

PESTAB. The convulsive action of small single oral doses of lindane was studied in mice. Adult female albino mice received lindane (10 mg/kg p.o.) with pentylenetetrazol injected at 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24 hr after lindane. In another experiment mice received lindane (10, 7.5, 5, 2.5, and 1.2 mg/kg, p.o.) with pentylenetetrazol injected 3 hr later. The first experiment showed that the sensitivity to pentylenetetrazol increased rapidly with a peak after 3 hr when 80% of the lindane treated animals showed convulsions compared to 13% in the control group. The sensitivity to pentylenetetrazol was not observed at 12 hr after lindane administration. The results of the second experiment showed that all the tested lindane doses elicited a significantly higher frequency of convulsions than would be expected from pentylenetetrazol exposure without prior exposure to lindane. Thus the consulsive dose threshold for pentylenetetrazol is lowered by small single oral doses of lindane in the mouse.