Ethylene Glycol Monomethyl Ether. I. Subchronic Vapor Inhalation Study with Rats and Rabbits

Ethylene Glycol Monomethyl Ether. I. Subchronic Vapor InhalationStudy with Rats and Rabbits. (1983). Fundam. Appl. Toxicol.3:49-54. Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats and New ZealandWhite rabbits were exposed to 0,30, 100 or 300 ppm ethyleneglycol monomethyl ether (EGME) vapors 6 hours per day, 5 daysper week, for a total of 13 weeks. No rats died prior to scheduledsacrifice, but some rabbits in the 100 and 300 ppm exposuregroups died or were sacrificed when moribund during the study.Body weights as well as thymus and testicular weights of ratsand rabbits in the 300 ppm group were reduced as a result ofthe exposures. Hematologic changes occurred in rats and rabbitsexposed to 300 ppm. Concentrations of total protein, albuminand globulins in serum of rats (but not rabbits) in the 300ppm group were lower than for controls. Gross lesions in ratsand rabbits exposed to 300 ppm EGME included decreased sizeof thymus in both sexes, decreased abdominal fat, and smallflaccid testes in males. In addition there was decreased lymphoidtissue in some rabbits, as well as a slight-to-moderate decreasein size of testes in 4 of 5 rabbits in the 100 ppm group andin 2 of 5 rabbits exposed to 30 ppm. Treatment-related microscopiclesions included degenerative changes in germinal epitheliumof testes in all male rats and rabbits in the 300 ppm group,as well as in 3 of 5 rabbits in the 100 ppm group and 1 of 5male rabbits in the 30 ppm group. The only effects attributedto exposure to 30 ppm EGME in this study were slight microscopicchanges in testes of 1 of 5 male rabbits.