N-butyl benzenesulfonamide: a neurotoxic plasticizer inducing a spastic myelopathy in rabbits

N-Butyl benzenesulfonamide (NBBS), a plasticizer used commercially in the polymerization of polyamide compounds, is neurotoxic. Young adult New Zealand white rabbits, inoculated repeatedly with NBBS by the intracisternal or intraperitoneal routes, developed a dose-dependent motor dysfunction characterized by limb splaying, hyperreflexia, hypertonia, gait impairment, and abnormal righting reflexes. Histopathological changes consisted of intramedullary thickening of the ventral horn axons, random neuroaxonal spheroids confined to brain stem nuclei and spinal motor neurons, and swollen dendritic processes of spinal motor neurons. Immunoreactivity to a monoclonal antibody against microtubule-associated protein-2 (MAP-2) was markedly increased in the dendrites of spinal motor neurons following thrice weekly intraperitoneal inoculations of NBBS for 4 months, whereas after 12 monthly intracisternal inoculations, MAP-2 immunoreactivity was absent or strikingly reduced in the same neuronal populations. Ultrastructurally, postsynaptic zones contained vacuoles and multilamellar bodies. These findings raise questions about the safety of NBBS to humans.