A pilot study in adult rhesus monkeys (M. mulatta) treated with Aroclor 1254 for two years

Aroclor 1254, at a dose level of 280 micrograms/kg body weight equivalent to 200 micrograms/kg/day, was given 5 days per week to rhesus monkeys over a 27 to 28 month period. Terminal clinical signs of varying severity included fingernail detachment, exuberant nail beds, weight loss, stomatitis and normocytic anemia. At necropsy the bone marrow was hypocellular with increased M:E ratio and cytoplasmic vacuoles in erythroid precursor cells. Histopathologic lesions included dilatation of the tarsal gland ducts, atrophy or absence of splenic and lymph node germinal centers, bone marrow depletion, gingival erosion and ulceration, moderate mucinous hypertrophic gastropathy with cystic dilatation of occasional gastric glands, hepatocellular enlargement and necrosis, hypertrophy of biliary duct epithelium, hyperplasia of biliary ducts, hypertrophy of the gall bladder epithelium, and an equivocal increase in the number of lysosomes in thyroid follicular epithelial cells. PCB tissue concentrations were lowest in brain and highest in blood. The results suggest that severe potentially fatal PCB toxicity can develop in rhesus monkeys following ingestion of Aroclor 1254 at 200 micrograms/kg/day for a period of 27 months or longer.