Lack of differential sensitivity to cholinesterase inhibition in fetuses and neonates compared to dams treated perinatally with chlorpyrifos

Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to chlorpyrifos (CPF; O,O-diethyl-O-[3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinyl] phosphorothioate) by gavage (in corn oil) from gestation day (GD)6 to postnatal day (PND) 10. Dosages to the dams were 0 (control), 0.3 (low), 1.0 (middle) or 5.0 mg/kg/day (high). On GD 20 (4 h post gavage), the blood CPF concentration in fetuses was about one half the level found in their dams (high-dose fetuses 46 ng/g; high-dose dams 109 ng/g). CPF-oxon was detected only once; high-dose fetuses had a blood level of about 1 ng/g. Although no blood CPF could be detected (limit of quantitation 0.7 ng/g) in darns given 0.3 mg/kg/day, these dams had significant inhibition of plasma and red blood cell (RBC) ChE. In contrast, fetuses of dams given 1 mg/kg/day had a blood CPF level of about 1.1 ng/g, but had no inhibition of ChE of any tissue. Thus, based on blood CPF levels, fetuses had less cholinesterase (ChE) inhibition than dams. Inhibition of ChE occurred at all dosage levels in dams, but only at the high-dose level in pups. At the high dosage, ChE inhibition was greater in dams than in pups, and the relative degree of inhibition was RBC approximate to plasma greater than or equal to heart > brain (least inhibited). Milk CPF concentrations were up to 200 times those in blood, and pup exposure via milk from dams given 5 mg/kg/day was estimated to be 0.12 mg/kg/day. Therefore, the dosage to nursing pups was much reduced compared to the dams exposure. In spite of exposure via milk, the ChE levels of all tissues of high-dosage pups rapidly returned to near control levels by PND 5.