Testosterone pretreatment mitigates cadmium toxicity in male C57 mice but not in C3H mice

Previous work has indicated that testosterone pretreatment protects against cadmium-induced toxicity in male rats while other data indicate that pretreatment of mice with testosterone offers no such protection against cadmium. Since cadmium toxicity may vary widely with species and strain, we examined the effect of testosterone pretreatment on cadmium toxicity in two strains of mice, one that is sensitive (C3H) and one that is resistant (C57) to cadmium toxicity. A single sc injection of 20 micromol CdCl2/kg to C3H mice or 45 micromol CdCl2/kg to C57 mice proved very toxic, causing 50%, and 44% mortalities, respectively. However, when C57 mice were pretreated with testosterone (5 mg/kg, s.c., at - 48, - 24, and 0 h) prior to cadmium (45 micromol/kg), complete resistance to cadmium-induced lethality developed. Testosterone had no effect on cadmium-induced lethality in C3H mice. Testosterone prevented extensive hepatocellular damage caused by cadmium in C57 mice and also significantly reduced cadmium-induced elevations in serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity and blood urea nitrogen (BUN), which are indicators of hepatic and renal function, respectively. The toxicokinetics of cadmium were apparently not affected by testosterone pretreatment, as the distribution of cadmium to liver in either strain was unchanged by the steroid. Cadmium-induced metallothionein (MT) levels in liver and kidney of C57 mice were increased in testosterone-pretreated mice given the higher doses of metal but no such enhancement of MT synthesis occurred in C3H mice. This increase in MT may provide some level of protection against cadmium toxicity in the C57 mice. These results indicate that testosterone pretreatment prevents toxicity of cadmium in male C57 mice, possibly through enhancement of MT synthesis, but has no effect in male C3H mice.