Ethylene Glycol Monopropyl Ether: A Developmental Toxicity Study in Rabbits

Ethylene Glycol Monopropyl Ether A Developmental Toxicity Studyin Rabbits. KRASAVAGE, W. J., HOSENFELD, R. S., AND KATZ, G.V. (1990). Fundam. Appl. Toxicol. 15, 517–527. To determinethe potential developmental toxicity of ethylene glycol monopropylether (EGPE), groups of pregnant New Zealand white rabbits wereexposed to target concentrations of 0, 125, 250, or 500 ppmEGPE vapors for 6 hr a day on Days 6–18 of gestation.Maternal effects included a slight reduction in feed consumptionduring the first week of treatment at the 250- and 500-ppm exposurelevels and slightly reduced body weight gain at the 500-ppmlevel compared to those of the controls, but the differenceswere not statistically significant. One doe exposed to 500 ppmhad red-colored urine during the 24-hr period following thesecond exposure. Hemato-logic determinations, absolute and relativeorgan weights, and observations at necropsy revealed no treatment-relatedmaternal effects. Reproductive indices, i.e., pregnancy rate,number of corpora lutea, implantation sites, viable fetuses,early and late resorptions, fetal body weights, fetal sex ratio,and the gravid uterine and corrected body weights, were notaffected by exposures to EGPE. The occurrences of external andinternal soft tissue malformations and variations and the incidencesof skeletal malformations in the EGPE-exposed groups were notsignificantly different from those in the control group. Commonskeletal variations, in many instances, were seen less frequentlyin EGPE-exposed fetuses than in control fetuses. In those caseswhere the incidence of fetuses with a skeletal variation wasgreater for EGPE-exposed fetuses than that for control fetuses,the number of litters involved was not significantly differentfrom that of the control group. Thus, EGPE vapor concentrationsas high as 500 ppm did not produce teratoge-nicity or otherdevelopmental toxicity in the rabbit conceptus.