Toxicity of copper salts in hamster embryonic development

Abstract

The intravenous injection of copper salts into pregnant hamsters on the eighth day of gestation caused an increase in embryonic resorptions as well as the appearance of developmental malformations in surviving offspring. Malformations of the heart appeared to be a specific result of the toxicity of these copper compounds. Copper in a chelated form (copper citrate) was only slightly more embryocidal, but considerably more embryopathic than that in the uncomplexed form (copper sulfate). Additional studies on the permeability of the early hamster placenta during the critical stages of organogenesis (Day 8) revealed that the placenta was permeable to radioactive copper (citrate form), indicating that this metal may have a direct teratogenic effect upon the developing embryo.