Comparative study of the sensitivity of male and female rats to methylmercury

Abstract

Male and female rats were dosed daily by gastric gavage four or five times with 8.0 mg/kg Hg as methylmercury. Treatment lowered the body weight in relation to the body weight of untreated rats to the same extent in male and female rats but when body weight was related to the initial body weight, the effect of methylmercury was more pronounced in females than in males. The importance of differences in growth or loss of body weight is that in spite of the similar whole body clearance mercury concentrations were higher in females than in males. After identical doses the brains of females always contained more mercury than those of males and in both sexes the brain concentration of mercury showed a disproportionate elevation when the number of doses was increased from four to five. However, weight change alone does not explain the sex related difference in the brain concentration of mercury as this was evident even 72 h after a single dose. In agreement with the brain concentration of mercury, female rats developed more intensive co-ordination disorders and after five doses they had more extensive damage in the granular layer of the cerebellum than males.