Effect of DDT Ingestion on Total Cholesterol Content of Ovaries Of White Rat. ∗

Abstract

Summary and conclusions

Female albino rats, age 30 days at beginning of the experiments, were fed ad libitum ground feed diets containing 100, 300, or 600 p.p.m. of pure p, p′ DDT. After 60 days, at age 90 days, the rats were sacrificed, ovaries were removed, weighed, and analysed either for total cholesterol or for organic chloride. Control females were handled the same way except food was uncontaminated with DDT. Other groups of 30-day females were started on 800 and 1,000 p.p.m. DDT diets but had to be sacrificed after 11 and 5 days, respectively, when death was imminent. Normal average ovarian organic chloride from control rats was 594 μ/g of tissue (range 558-637); average ovarian total cholesterol was 6.7 parts/1,000 (range 6.0-7.5). Average weight of both ovaries from control 90-day rats was 66.8 mg. On 100, 300, and 600 p.p.m. diets, the average calculated DDT contents of the ovaries were 364, 1423, and 2594 μ/g of ovary; the total cholesterol values were 3.9, 4.6 and 4.1 parts 1,000, respectively. Rats on the diet of 800 p.p.m. for 11 days, and on the 1,000 p.p.m. for 5 days showed less change in total cholesterol values (5.2 and 6.2, respectively) than did the 90-day rats, exposed to the DDT diets for 60 days, perhaps because the shorter exposure to the toxicant was not long enough to disrupt the sterol metabolism of the ovaries. On the other hand, the DDT content of ovaries from rats on 800 p.p.m. averaged nearly 4600 μ/g of tissue; and on 1,000 p.p.m., nearly 7500 μ/g. These data indicate a“selective accumulation” of DDT by female gonadal tissue. The disturbance in the sterol balance of the ovary may be significant in view of the opinion that cholesterol may be a precursor of progesterone.