Effect of ethylene glycol monomethyl ether on spermatogenesis, dominant lethality, and F1 abnormalities in the rat and the mouse after treatment of F0 males

Adult male CD rats and CD-1 mice were given a single oral dose of ethylene glycol monomethyl ether (EGM) at 0, 500, 750, 1,000, or 1500 mg/kg. Groups of 10 were killed at weekly intervals after dosing for analysis of sperm counts and morphology or testicular histology; further groups of 10 were sequentially mated to pairs of virgin females to test for dominant lethality or gross foetal malformations in the F1 generation (F1 abnormalities). EGM was found to deplete the spermatocytes of both species severely, principally pachytene cells, but with other stages affected with increasing dose. A delay in the progression of spermatogenesis may account for a discrepancy between the apparent stage-specificity of damage deduced from lowered sperm counts and that observed histologically. In the rat, morphological abnormalities were observed in sperm that had been exposed as spermatocytes; in the mouse, however, the sensitive cells were the late spermatocytes and early spermatids. In all these parameters there was an indication of a dose-response relationship in both rats and mice. In the mating studies EGM induced a dose-related decrease in fertility 5 weeks after dosing in the rat, but complete sterility in all but the lowest dose after 6 weeks. In contrast, EGM had no effect on the reproductive capacity of the mouse. There was no statistically significant evidence for the induction of dominant lethal mutations or F1 abnormalities in either species. A single oral dose of cyclophosphamide (CTX) at 100 mg/kg induced a significant increase in dominant lethality in both species. CTX reduced the number of total implants in the rat and induced a nonsignificant increase in the number of abnormal offspring sired by treated male mice.