Ethylene glycol monomethyl ether (EGME) exposure of male mice produces a decrease in cell proliferation of preimplantation embryos

Abstract In this study using an aggregation chimera assay we examined male mice exposed to a nonmutagenic reproductive toxicant, EGME, for the transmission of impaired viability to their progeny preimplantation embryos. Prior to their aggregation into pairs, one of the embryos was labled with a viable dye fluorecein isothiocyanate (FITC) to determine the relative cellular contribution from each partner embryo when chimeras were dissociated 30 to 35 h later (2 to 3 cell cycles). Direct cell-cell contact of embryos derived from exposed males and embryos from control males creates a competitive situation that has been shown to confer a cell proliferation disadvantage to the embryo from an exposed parent. The cell proliferation disadvantage is expressed as a “proliferation ratio”: number cells from an experimental embryo/total chimera cell number. Male mice were exposed to EGME by gavage for 5 days with 0, 50, 200, 750, or 1500 mg/kg and were serially mated with unexposed female mice for the next 7 weeks. Proliferation ratios were significantly decreased in the 50, 200, and 750 mg/kg dose groups at week 4, which corresponds to the pachytene spermatocyte stage of spermatogenesis. Proliferation ratios were also significantly decreased in the 1500 mg/kg group at week 5. Due to transient infertility in this dose group, there were not sufficient numbers of embryos to evaluate for week 4. These results indicate that male mice exposed to EGME transmitted adverse effects to their progeny embryos that were expressed as an embryonic cell proliferation disadvantage in the chimera assay.