Evaluation of 13-week inhalation toxicity of sec-butanethiol in rats

• Published in: Food and chemical toxicology 2009-09, Vol.47 (9), p.2294-2301
• Main Authors: Kim, Hyeon-Yeong, Lee, Sung-Bae, Cho, Hae-Won, Kang, Min-Gu, Yang, Jeong-Sun, Shin, In-Sik, Kim, Jong-Choon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Administration, Inhalation; Air Pollutants - toxicity; animal models; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; body weight; Body Weight - drug effects; dose response; Eating - drug effects; epithelium; Erythrocyte Indices - drug effects; erythrocytes; Female; females; gender differences; hematocrit; hemoglobin; Industrial chemicals; Inhalation; inhalation exposure; Kidney - drug effects; Kidney - pathology; kidneys; liver; Liver - drug effects; Liver - pathology; Male; males; Medical sciences; nasal mucosa; nasal turbinates; No-Observed-Adverse-Effect Level; Olfactory Mucosa - drug effects; Olfactory Mucosa - pathology; Organ Size - drug effects; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; sec-Butanethiol; spleen; Spleen - drug effects; Spleen - pathology; Subchronic toxicity; Sulfhydryl Compounds - toxicity; thiols; tissue weight; Toxicology; volatile compounds; weight gain
• ISSN: 0278-6915; 1873-6351
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2009.06.017

The subchronic toxicity of sec-butanethiol was investigated in Sprague-Dawley rats following a 13-week period of repeated inhalation exposure. Four groups of 10 rats of each sex were exposed to sec-butanethiol vapor by whole-body inhalation at 0, 25, 100, or 400ppm for 6h per day, 5days a week over a 13-week period. At 400ppm, both genders exhibited a decrease in food consumption, although a decrease in the body weight gain was only observed in females. Hematological investigations revealed a decrease in red blood cell, hemoglobin, and hematocrit in both the male and female groups, whilst the female group exhibited an increase in the mean corpuscular volume and a decrease in the mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration. There was an increase in kidney weight for both genders but the liver weight was only higher in males than controls. Histopathological alterations were found in the kidneys, spleen, and nasal olfactory epithelium. There were no treatment-related effects observed in both genders at ⩽100ppm. Under the present experimental conditions, the target organs were determined to be the blood cells, the kidneys, the liver, and the nasal turbinates in rats. The no-observed-effect level was considered to be 100ppm in rats.