Effects of the insecticide chlordecone on the ultrastructure of mouse skeletal muscle.
This study examined the ultrastructural alterations in skeletal muscle of adult mice exposed to subacute doses of the insecticide chlordecone. Mice were given eight daily intraperitoneal injections of chlordecone and were then sacrificed one, eight, and 28 days after the last exposure. Forelimb grip strength of the animals was recorded before, during, and after exposure but chlordecone caused no apparent effects. Morphological changes in skeletal muscle were primarily confined to mitochondria and to lipid and glycogen distribution. At one day post-treatment, some mitochondria were electron dense or contained only poorly defined cristae while other mitochondria had redundant layers of bounding membranes or contained aggregations of membrane in myelin-like configurations. Also, after chlordecone treatments, lipid and glycogen were no longer visible. By 8 days post-treatment, most evidence of mitochondrial damage was no longer present and lipid and glycogen were again apparent but in lesser concentrations than in controls. By 28 days post-treatment, the muscle was similar to controls except that lipid droplets were larger and more numerous. This study demonstrates that chlordecone, in subacute doses, produces reversible changes in skeletal muscle mitochondria and in glycogen and lipid stores but without altering muscle grip strength.
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D000818:Animals; D007631:Chlordecone / Q000633:toxicity*; D007306:Insecticides / Q000633:toxicity*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008931:Mitochondria, Muscle / Q000187:drug effects; D009132:Muscles / Q000187:drug effects / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D014202:Tremor / Q000139:chemically induced
D007306:Insecticides; D007631:Chlordecone