Ninety-day toxicity of photomirex in the male rat.

Photomirex (8-monohydromirex) is a demonstrated environmental contaminant and was observed in previous short-term studies to produce lesions in the liver, thyroid and testes of male rats. The present study was undertaken to confirm those observations and to determine the effects after a longer period of exposure. Male rats were fed photomirex for 13 weeks at levels of 0.20, 1.0, 5.0, 25 and 125 ppm in the diet. Deaths were observed in animals receiving the highest dose. Decreased body weight gain and food intake were also observed in that group. Liver weights were increased at 5.0 ppm photomirex and higher. Photomirex caused changes in several biochemical parameters including serum sorbitol dehydrogenase and hepatic aniline hydroxylase activities. Dose-related histological abnormalities were observed in the thyroid and liver starting at the lowest dose level. These results confirm earlier findings and show that photomirex is a potent hepato- and thyrotoxin.