Behavioral Effects of Pre-and Postnatal Exposure to a Mixture of Low Chlorinated PCBs in Rats

Behavioral Effects of Pre- and Postnatal Exposure to a Mixtureof Low Chlorinated PCBs in Rats. LILIENTHAL, H., NEUF, M., MUNOZ,C, AND WINNEKE, G. (1990). Fundam. Appl. Toxicol. 15, 457–467.Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-treated Wistar rats were testedon three different behavioral paradigms. Animals were pre- andpostnatally exposed to a technical mixture of PCBs with a chlorinecontent of 42%. Exposure levels were 0, 5, or 30 mg/kg diet.These conditions did not affect the health of the dams, thelitter size or weight, or the physical development of the offspring.Relative liver weights in the offspring, however, were elevatedin a dose-dependent manner. Open-field ambulation, active avoidancelearning, and operant conditioning on a fixed interval 30-secschedule (FI-30-sec) were used to evaluate PCB-induced behavioralalterations. Ambulation was increased in 30-mg-treated ratsat Day 22, but not at Day 120. There were more avoidance responsesand intertrial responses in the 30-mg group than in both othergroups. On the FI-30-sec schedule slightly more reactions wereemitted by the 30-mg group during the first 10 sec of the intervalthan by the other animals. More pronounced, however, were thedifferences between groups in the temporal pattern of responseswithin the 30-sec interval. It is concluded that in rats PCBexposure causes consistent alterations in all of the testedactivity-dependent behaviors.