[Developmental toxicity of Al(NO3)3 on rat embryos]

The developmental toxicity and its mechanism of Al(NO3)3 on embryos in SD rats were studied. On the 9.5th day of gestation, the embryos were incubated in a whole-embryo culture system with Al(NO3)3 at concentrations of Al3+ from 0.6 to 9.0 micrograms/ml in culture media for 48 hrs. Viable embryos were evaluated by Brown's morphological scoring system, and the diameter of yolk sac, crown-rump, head length and the dry weight of embryos were measured. There was a dose-dependent relations of decreasing embryo development with increasing concentrations of Al3+. Yolk sac diameter, head length, dry weight and heart, forelimb as well as neural tube scores decreased significantly at 1.2 micrograms/ml (P < 0.05). When embryos were exposed to Al3+ at > or = 3.0 micrograms/ml, the embryonic development and morphological differentiation were obviously inhibited(P < 0.05); meanwhile, the incidence of dysmorphogenesis significantly increased, including neural tube defects and dorsiflexion teratogenesis. The results suggested that aluminum might be a developmental toxicant and dysmorphogenesis agent.