Maternal cesium chloride ingestion and the newborn

The effect of pre and postnatal maternal ingestion of CsCl on neonatal growth and development was studied in the Sprague-Dawley albino mouse. The effects of such treatment on selected offspring organ weights, some hepatic and cardiac enzymes were also studied. The CsCl was given in drinking water at conception, during gestation, lactation and throughout the 21 days of breast-feeding of the weanling. The weanlings were separated from the nursing dams for a subsequent 3 weeks and had access to food and distilled water. Maternal Cs treatment caused a sex-dependent decrease of weanling's body weight which attained the control level 3 weeks after discontinued breast-feeding. The offspring's brain and testis weights were decreased from corresponding control while spleen weight was increased during postnatal maturation and in the absence of maternal breast-feeding. Maternal CsCl ingestion resulted in an induction of weanling hepatic ethanol but not acetaldehyde metabolizing enzyme. The hepatic cytoplasmic, but not mitochondrial, NAD-linked aldehyde dehydrogenase was induced 3 weeks later in the developing offspring after cessation of maternal nursing. These neonatal toxicity measurements were not apparent in the maternal tissues studied. There was a differential developmental response in the induction of neonatal hepatic ethanol metabolizing enzyme by maternal exposure to Cs+. The cellular fractionation of developing offspring liver aldehyde dehydrogenase showed that such enzymatic induction was cellular specific and was confined to the subcellular cytoplasmic fraction. The results suggest that Cs+ was most probably transferred to the fetus and/or to breast milk to the suckling newborn.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)