| kunming repro/devel |
Developmental |
To produce fluoride and/or lead exposure pups, pregnant mice were divided into control and experimental groups as follows: (1) control group: received double-distilled water; (2) high fluoride (HiF) group: received sodium fluoride (150 mg/L); (3) high lead (HiPb) group: received lead acetate (300 mg/L); and (4) high fluoride plus high lead (HiF+HiPb) group: received sodium fluoride (150 mg/L) and lead acetate (300 mg/L). Before postnatal day 14, the pups derived their nutrients only from maternal milk. After day 14, they gradually began to eat feed and drink water, concomitantly with suckling maternal milk. At the age of postnatal day 21, the pups ate and drank entirely by themselves and given the same treatment as their parental generation until the postnatal day 56. The doses of sodium fluoride and lead acetate were selected according to our previous study.; Sixty healthy Kunming mice (female/male=2:1), about 20 g in weight, were supplied by the experimental animal center of Shanxi Medical University. Animals were kept in plastic cages and allowed to acclimate for 1 week in our laboratory with their standard diets. Then each pair of two female and one male was placed together for mating. When the vaginal plug was observed, the females were separated from the male and kept individually…. To avoid the gender difference, only the male offspring mice were used in this experiment. Animals had free access to food and water under standard temperature (22–25 °C), 12/12-h light/dark cycle, ventilation, and hygienic conditions. The study design was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of China. |