Investigation of the prenatal toxicity of orally administered diethylene glycol in rabbits.

Diethylene glycol was tested for prenatal toxicity after oral administration (gavage) to pregnant Himalayan rabbits. The substance was administered to 15 female rabbits per group by stomach tube in daily doses of 100, 400, or 1000 mg/kg body wt from Day 7 postinsemination (p.i.) through Day 19 p.i. The control group received the vehicle only (twice distilled water). There were no compound-related effects on the dams concerning food consumption, body weight, body weight gain, or clinical or necropsy observations even at the highest dose of 1000 mg/kg body wt/day. All data obtained on gestational parameters also revealed no biologically relevant differences between the control and treated groups. The fetal external, soft tissue, and skeletal findings, which were classified as malformations, variations, and/or retardations, were seen in the treated fetuses at a frequency similar to the corresponding and/or historical controls. Thus, under the conditions of this study, no signs of maternal toxicity or embryo-/fetotoxicity were induced by diethylene glycol. Therefore, a no-observable-adverse-effect level for diethylene glycol of > 1000 mg/kg body wt/day was established for both the maternal and the developing Himalayan rabbit.