Evaluation of Neonatal Squirrel Monkeys Receiving Tritiated Water Throughout Gestation

Abstract

Pregnant squirrel monkeys received tritiated water (HTO) in the drinking water throughout gestation at levels ranging from 16 to 1000 times the permissible level for human consumption (0.003 ..mu..Ci/ml), resulting in mean body water HTO levels ranging from 0.05 to 3.1 ..mu..Ci/ml. There were no discernible effects of HTO administration on the newborn progeny in terms of body weight, body dimensions, selected organ weights (brain, heart, adrenal, kidney, liver, spleen), hematologic patterns, and histology of selected organs and tissues (adrenal, kidney, liver, lung, brain, pancreas, jejunum, pituitary, spleen, testes, thymus, skin) other than ovaries. The number of primary oocytes in female progeny decreased markedly with increasing levels of HTO in maternal drinking water. Quantitative analysis of neonate ovaries, testes, brain tissue, and retinal tissue is in progress. No effects of HTO administration on maternal body weight, gestation time, or maintenance of pregnancy to full term were observed. Body weights of HTO-treated inseminated females that did not deliver were less than control weights, but the lack of dose dependence implies that this effect may have been associated with a stimulus characteristic of the HTO administration rather than with irradiation.