Neurophysiological assessment of auditory, peripheral nerve, somatosensory, and visual system functions after developmental exposure to ethanol vapors.

Ethanol-blended gasoline entered the market in response to demand for domestic renewable energy sources, and may result in increased inhalation of ethanol vapors in combination with other volatile gasoline constituents. It is important to understand potential risks of inhalation of ethanol vapors by themselves, and also as a baseline for evaluating the risks of ethanol combined with a complex mixture of hydrocarbon vapors. Because sensory dysfunction has been reported after developmental exposure to ethanol, we evaluated the effects of developmental exposure to ethanol vapors on neurophysiological measures of sensory function as a component of a larger project evaluating developmental ethanol toxicity. Pregnant Long-Evans rats were exposed to target concentrations 0, 5000, 10,000, or 21,000 ppm ethanol vapors for 6.5h/day over GD9-GD20. Sensory evaluations of male offspring began between PND106 and PND128. Peripheral nerve function (compound action potentials, nerve conduction velocity (NCV)), somatosensory (cortical and cerebellar evoked potentials), auditory (brainstem auditory evoked responses), and visual evoked responses were assessed. Visual function assessment included pattern elicited visual evoked potentials (VEPs), VEP contrast sensitivity, and electroretinograms recorded from dark-adapted (scotopic), light-adapted (photopic) flashes, and UV flicker and green flicker. No consistent concentration-related changes were observed for any of the physiological measures. The results show that gestational exposure to ethanol vapor did not result in detectable changes in peripheral nerve, somatosensory, auditory, or visual function when the offspring were assessed as adults.

Cholinesterase inhibition and depression of the photic after discharge of flash evoked potentials following acute or repeated exposures to a mixture of carbaryl and propoxur.

Previously, we reported that acute treatment with propoxur or carbaryl decreased the duration of the photic after discharge (PhAD) of flash evoked potentials (FEPs). In the current studies, we compared the effects of acute or repeated exposure to a mixture of carbaryl and propoxur (1:1.45 ratio; propoxur:carbaryl) on the duration of the PhAD and brain ChE activity in Long Evans rats. Animals were exposed (po) either to a single dose (0, 3, 10, 45 or 75 mg/kg), or 14 daily dosages (0, 3, 10, 30, 45 mg/kg), of the mixture. Acute and repeated treatment with 3mg/kg (or greater) of the mixture produced dose-related inhibition of brain ChE activity. Compared to controls, the PhAD duration decreased after acute administration of 75 mg/kg or repeated treatment with 30 mg/kg of the mixture. The linear relationship between the percent of control brain ChE activity and the PhAD duration was similar for both exposure paradigms. Dose-response models for the acute and repeated exposure data did not differ for brain ChE activity or the duration of the PhAD. Repeated treatment with the mixture resulted in slightly less (13-22%) erythrocyte ChE inhibition than acute exposure. Both acute and repeated treatment resulted in dose-additive results for the PhAD duration and less than dose-additive responses (6-16%) for brain ChE activity for the middle range of dosages. Acute treatment resulted in greater than dose-additive erythrocyte ChE inhibition (15-18%) at the highest dosages. In contrast, repeated treatment resulted in less than dose-additive erythrocyte ChE inhibition (16-22%) at the middle dosages. Brain and plasma levels of propoxur and carbaryl did not differ between the acute and repeated dosing paradigms. In summary, a physiological measure of central nervous system function and brain ChE activity had similar responses after acute or repeated treatment with the carbamate mixture, and brain ChE showed only small deviations from dose-additivity. Erythrocyte ChE activity had larger differences between the acute and repeated treatment paradigms, and showed slightly greater deviations from dose-additivity. Because these treatments utilized larger dosages than anticipated environmental exposures, concern for non-additive effects in humans is minimized. The small magnitude of the deviations from dose-additivity also suggest that in the absence of repeated exposure data, results from an acute study of readily reversible carbamate toxicity can be used to estimate the response to repeated daily exposures.

Relationship between brain and plasma carbaryl levels and cholinesterase inhibition.

Carbaryl is a N-methylcarbamate pesticide and, like others in this class, is a reversible inhibitor of cholinesterase (ChE) enzymes. Although studied for many years, there is a surprising lack of information relating tissue levels of carbaryl with ChE activity in the same animals. The present studies were undertaken to describe the dose-response relationship about 40 min (approximate time of maximal ChE inhibition) after oral treatment in adult, post-natal day (PND) 17, and PND11 rats. Additionally, the time-course of plasma ChE activity and carbaryl levels in adult rats was determined after a 30 mg/kg dosage of carbaryl. The time-course study found that carbaryl levels could be detected in plasma 1 h after dosing, but rapidly decreased below the level of quantitation by the 2 h time point. In the dose-response studies, treatment-related increases in plasma and brain carbaryl levels were observed 40 min after dosing. Plasma levels of carbaryl increased linearly, while brain levels appeared to asymptote after 75 mg/kg carbaryl. Plasma and brain levels of carbaryl appeared to be linearly related with a slope close to 1 after various dosages (range: 1-75 mg/kg) of carbaryl at the 40 min time point. Finally, the dose-related relationship between tissue levels of carbaryl and ChE activity was described using a first order exponential decay function with an asymptote. The parameters of this function did not appear to differ between adult, PND17, or PND11 rats. This indicates that age-related differences in brain ChE inhibition by carbaryl are unlikely to be the result of greater tissue levels of the pesticide in PND11 animals. These are the first studies to report the relationship between brain and plasma tissue levels of carbaryl and ChE activity on an individual animal basis. The results of these experiments will be useful to extend physiologically-based pharmacokinetic models for carbaryl and their application in risk assessment.