Time and dose-response study of the effects on rats of the plasticizer di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate

Groups of male and groups of female Wistar albino rats were administered diets containing sufficient di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) to ensure intakes of either 1000, 200, or 50 mg/kg/day. Four rats from each experimental group and six control rats of the same sex were killed 3, 7, 14, and 28 days and 9 months after commencement of treatment. At all time points the major abdominal organs were removed and subjected to histological examination. A more extensive necropsy was performed on those rats killed after 9 months of treatment. At all time points the livers of the rats were subjected to extensive histologic, electron microscopic, and biochemical examination. Changes could be grouped according to their time course. Two early and transient alterations were noticed. First, there were morphologic changes in the bile canaliculi of male rats treated with 1000 mg/kg/day of DEHP. Second, there was a burst of mitosis immediately after the start of administration of the compound. The time course of this mitotic burst varied; the increase in mitosis was greatest at 3 days in rats treated with 1000 mg/kg/day of DEHP and was smaller but more prolonged in rats treated with 200 or 50 mg/kg/day. Other changes, namely, a midzonal to periportal accumulation of fat, induction of peroxisomal enzymes, and induction of the P-450 isoenzyme also developed rapidly but were sustained throughout the study. The maximal change was usually attained within 7 days of commencement of treatment. More slowly developing changes were hypertrophy of the hepatocytes, centrilobular loss of glycogen, and a fall in glucose-6-phosphatase activity. Here maximal changes were not attained until 28 days after commencement of treatment. These three effects were clearly observed in rats treated with 200 or 1000 mg/kg/day of DEHP but were only marginally altered in rats treated with 50 mg/kg/day. Finally accumulation of lipid-loaded lysosomes assessed by light and electron microscopy and by assay of beta-galactosidase activity was only apparent in rats treated with DEHP for 9 months with 200 or 1000 mg/kg/day of DEHP. Changes in female rats were qualitatively similar to those observed in male rats. The alterations were, however, less pronounced than in male rats treated with an equal dose of DEHP and the degree of liver enlargement was much less because, although the initial hyperplasia was clearly apparent, there was a much smaller degree of hypertrophy.