Offspring Damaging Mechanism of Arsenic: the Effects of Prenatal Arsenic Exposure on Desmogenic and Chondrogenic Ossification in the Rat*

György Ungváry, Erzsébet Tátrai, Éva Szakmáry

National Institute of Occupational Health, Budapest, Hungary

Corresponding author: Prof. Dr. György Ungváry M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.

Director General

National Institute of Occupational Health

H-1450 Budapest

P.O. Box 22, Hungary

Phone: (+36) 1 215-5491

*The study was supported by Grant No T-020875/1996 OTKA and No T-244/1996 of the Ministry of Welfare.

CEJOEM 1998, Vol.4. No.1.:11-14

Key words:
Arsenic, skeletal retardation, skeletal anomalies, desmogenic ossification

Abstract:
The authors treated pregnant rats daily with aqueous solution of sodium arsenite by gavage, during the whole gestation period, in doses of 0, 10, 15 or 20 mg/kg b.w. On day 21 of gestation the skeletal system of the animals was studied by alizarin red-S staining, topo-optical and lectin-histochemical methods.
It was found, that arsenic causes the retardation, first of all, of the bones of calvaria, the facial bones and other flat bones developing by desmogenic ossification. On the basis of the negative topo-optical and lectin-histochemical findings, the near-negative alizarin red-S staining, showing big empty areas and the strong positivity of Kossa’s impregnation, localized in the bones bordering the fontanelles and sutures, it was concluded, that arsenic affects the calcification during desmogenic ossification, but primarily not by its direct inhibition, rather by disturbing and damaging the calcium accumulating capacity of the bones.

Received: 4 February 1998
Accepted: 9 March 1998

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