Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 18, 2026
Development of a Nose-only Inhalation Toxicity Test Chamber That Provides Four Exposure Concentrations of Nano-sized Particles
Published on: March 18, 2019
Subchronic Inhalation Toxicity Study of n-pentane in Rats
Jong-Kyu Kim1, Hae-Won Cho, Jeong-Hee Han
1Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute, Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, Daejeon, Korea.
Objectives:
This study was conducted in order to obtain information concerning the health hazards that may result from a 13 week inhalation exposure of n-pentane in Sprague-Dawley rats.
Methods:
This study was conducted in accordance with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines for the testing of chemicals No. 413 'Subchronic inhalation toxicity: 90-day study (as revised in 2009)'. The rats were divided into 4 groups (10 male and 10 female rats in each group), and were exposed to 0, 340, 1,530, and 6,885 ppm n-pentane in each exposure chamber for 6 hour/day, 5 days/week, for 13 weeks. All of the rats were sacrificed at the end of the treatment period. During the test period, clinical signs, mortality, body weights, food consumption, ophthalmoscopy, locomotion activity, urinalysis, hematology, serum biochemistry, gross findings, organ weights, and histopathology were assessed.
Results:
During the period of testing, there were no treatment related effects on the clinical findings, body weight, food consumption, ophthalmoscopy, urinalysis, hematology, serum biochemistry, gross findings, relative organ weight, and histopathological findings.
Conclusion:
The no-observable-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) of n-pentane is evaluated as being more than 6,885 ppm (20.3 mg/L) in both male and female rats. n-pentane was not a classified specific target organ toxicity in the globally harmonized classification system (GHS).
