Potential for genotoxic and reprotoxic effects of vanadium compounds due to occupational and environmental exposures: An article based on a presentation at the 8th International Symposium on Vanadium Chemistry, Biological Chemistry, and Toxicology, Washington DC, August 15–18, 2012

Figures & data

Table 1. Developmental and maternal toxicity produced by different vanadium compounds (studies listed chronologically).

Compound	Concentration	Period of treatment	Species	Route	Maternal effects	Embryo and fetal effects	References
Ammonium metavanadate	0.47, 1.88, 3.75 mg/kg/day	5–10 d of gestation	Hamster	Intraperitoneally	No significant effects	Skeletal anomalies	Carlton et al. (1982)
Vanadium pentoxide	0.9 single dose	3 or 8 d of gestation	Mice	Intravenous	No effects reported	Skeletal ossification decreased (day 8). Broken spinal cord (9% of fetuses)	Wide (1984)
Sodium metavanadate	5, 10, 20 mg/kg/day	Males: 60 d before mating. Females: 14 d before mating; through gestation and lactation	Rat	Drinking water	No adverse effects	Significant decreases in development	Domingo et al. (1986)
Sodium metavanadate	5, 10, 20 mg/kg/day	6–14 d of gestation	Rat	Drinking water	No significant adverse effects	No significant adverse effects	Paternain et al. (1987)
Vanadyl sulfatepentahydrate	37.5, 75, 150 mg/kg/day	6–15 d of gestation	Mice	Drinking water	Decreased liver, kidney weight	Decreased fetal weight, increased embryo lethality, skeletal defects	Paternain et al. (1990)
Sodium orthovanadate	7.5, 15, 30 mg/kg	6–15 d of gestation	Mice	Drinking water	Reduced weight gain and food consumption. Death in 30 mg.	Delayed skeletal ossification in some areas	Sanchez et al. (1991)
Sodium metavanadate	2, 4, 8 mg/kg	6–15 d of gestation	Mice	Intraperitoneally	Decreased weight gain	Reduced weight, increased embryo lethality, cleft palate at high dose	Gómez et al. (1992)
Vanadium pentoxide	8.5 mg/kg	6–15 d of gestation	Mice	Intraperitoneally	No maternal toxicity observed.	Both proportion of litters with abnormal fetuses and number of altered fetuses was higher. Limb shortening most frequent alteration	Altamirano-Lozano et al. (1993)
Sodium metavanadate	0.25, 0.50 mg/ml	Gestation	Normal and diabetic female rats	Drinking water	Vanadate treatment reduced both conception rate and ability to carry pregnancy to term; effects more severe in diabetic versus non-diabetic dams	Not reported	Ganguli et al. (1994)
Fine particulate matter (PM2.5)	Oil-combustion associated elements vanadium and nickel	Exposure throughout pregnancy	Pregnant women	Inhaled	Not reported	Increased risk of low birth weight	Bell et al. (2010)

Table 2. Reprotoxicity induced in males by vanadium compounds (studies listed chronologically).

Compound	Concentrations	Dose and period	Species	Route	Effects	References
Vanadium sulfate	0.08 mM/kg	Single dose	Rats	Intratesticular	Reduction in testis weight and total necrosis	Kamboj & Kar (1964)
Sodium metavanadate	5, 10, 20 mg/kg/day	60 d before mating	Rats	Orally	No effects on fertility and reproduction	Domingo et al. (1986)
Vanadium pentoxide	8.5 mg/kg bw	Every 3 d for 60 d	CD-1 male mice	intraperitoneally	Decrease in fertility rate. Sperm count, motility, and morphology were impaired with the advancement of treatment. Decreased implantation, live fetuses, and fetal weight and increased the number of resorption/dam.	Altamirano-Lozano et al. (1996)
Vanadium pentoxide	12.5 mg/kg	Male: every second day, from birth to 21 d. Female: from day 21 to day of first vaginal estrus	Pre-pubertal rats	Intraperitoneally	Males: increased weight of seminal vesicles, thymus and submandibular glands Females: no significant differences in age of vaginal opening nor first vaginal estrus. Ovulation rate was lower in treated animals	Altamirano et al. (1991)
Sodium metavanadate	20, 40, 60, 80 mg/kg/day	64 d before mating	Male mice	Drinking water	Reduced body and epididymis weight. Decrease in sperm count	Llobet et al. (1993)
Vanadium tetroxide	4.7, 9.4, 18.8 mg/kg	60 d	Male mice	Intraperitoneally	Increase of apoptosis and ultrastructural changes of germ cell, but testosterone level was not modified	Aragón et al. (2005)
Sodium orthovanadate	0.75–1500 mg/l	5 weeks	Male CD-1 mice	Drinking water	No treatment-related effect on sperm chromatin structure or on testis cell population was observed	Leopardi et al. (2005)
Sodium orthovanadate	5, 15, 25 mg/kg	Sperm were sampled from epididymis 22 d after IP injection of host	Male mice	Intraperitoneally	Significant increases in the frequencies of total hyper-haploid sperm were found with 15 and 25 mg/kg, indicating induced non-disjunction during male meiosis	Attia et al. (2005)
Vanadium pentoxide	0.02 M	1 h/twice a week, 12 weeks	Male mice	Inhaled	Vanadium accumulates in the testes and decreases the percentage of gamma-tubulin in testicular cells (Sertoli, Leydig, and germ cells)	Mussali-Galante et al. (2005)
Sodium metavanadate	0.4 mg V/kg	Daily for 26 d	Male Sprague Dawley rats	Intraperitoneally	Reduced sperm count associated with decreased serum testosterone and gonadotropins level	Chandra et al. (2007a)
Vanadyl sulfate	100 mg/kg/day	60 d	Male Wistar rats	Orally	Decreased weights of testes and accessory reproductive organs. Reduced number and motility of epididymal sperm. Mating tests with untreated females revealed a decrease in pregnancy rate and mean number of pups delivered	Jain et al. (2007)
Sodium metavanadate	1, 10, or 100 µM	4 or 6 h	Ejaculated sperm samples, New Zealand White rabbits	In vitro	Reduced sperm motility and curvilinear velocity and numerous folds in the acrosome membrane	Castellini et al. (2009)

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