Dominant lethal studies in male mice after exposure to a 50-Hz electric field.
Male C3H/He mice were sham-exposed or exposed continuously for 2 weeks to a vertical, 50-Hz, electric field at 20 kV/m rms. Densities of currents induced in the testes are estimated to be near 100 microA/m2. After the exposure, each male was mated with two different female mice each week during a period of 8 weeks. By this schedule, female mice were impregnated with sperm that had been exposed to the electric field at different stages of the spermatogenic cycle. No significant differences as a function of exposure condition were observed in pregnancy rates or in survival of embryos before or after implantation. The absence of effects was not due to insensitivity of assays; other mice that were exposed to X-rays (dose to testes = 1.5 Gy) presented reliable evidence of mutagenesis.
Kowalczuk
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National Radiological Protection Board, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon, England.
Saunders
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D000818:Animals; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005799:Genes, Dominant; D005804:Genes, Lethal; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D016296:Mutagenesis; D013094:Spermatozoa