The teratogenic, embryotoxic, and prenatal mutagenic effect of 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol in the mouse

The teratogenic, embryotoxic, and prenatal mutagenic effects of 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol were investigated in CFLP strain pregnant mice treated with the compound at the dose of 3 × 25 mg/kg. After treatment on the 7th, 9th, and 11th days of pregnancy, the embryos were examined on the 18th day of pregnancy for obvious malformations and bone preparations were made with alizarin red S staining. The examination of chromosome aberrations in samples from liver cells of embryos was performed by the method of P. K. Datta, H. Rigger, and E. Schleiermacher (in Chemical Mutagenesis in Mammals and Man, F. Vogel and G. Röhrborn, eds., pp. 198–206, Springer-Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg/New York, 1970) . 3-Methyl-4-nitrophenol at the applied dosage did not result in teratogenic or prenatal chromosome damage in contrast to the damaging effect of 4,6-dinitro- o-cresol which was previously reported.