Toxicological profile of orally administered 1,6-hexane diamine in the rat

The industrial chemical 1,6-Hexane Diamine, or hexamethylenediamine (HMD), has an acute oral LD50 of 980 mg kg-1 in rats. Dietary administration of HMD to groups of rats for 3 months at dosages of 0, 50, 150, and 500 mg kg-1 resulted in a modest retardation in weight gain at the two higher test levels. No other obvious signs of toxicity or changes in the peripheral blood picture or selected clinical pathology parameters were found at any test level throughout the study. Evaluation of absolute and relative weights of 10 selected organs, as well as complete necropsies and microscopic evaluation of over 30 selected tissues and organs, revealed no changes considered related to treatment. The administration of HMD by gavage to pregnant rats at 0, 112, 184 and 300 mg kg-1 day-1 on days 6-15 of pregnancy (day 1 = day sperm detected) did not induce any teratogenic effects. Signs of maternal toxicity were observed only at 300 mg kg-1 day-1. Embryotoxicity was observed at both the 300 and 184 mg HMD kg-1 day-1 dosage levels. No treatment-related effects were observed at 112 mg HMD kg-1 day-1.