Multivariate biological profiling of the subacute effects of halogenated aliphatic hydrocarbons

Abstract

Ten halogenated aliphatic hydrocarbons have been investigated for subacute toxic effects in rats. The biological testing involved 248 measurements for each one of the compounds; the resulting data contain information regarding effects on clinical chemistry and hematology patterns, as well as data on changes in total body weight and weights of specific internal organs. Principal component analysis was used to analyze the multivariate response data. This multivariate biological profiling showed that, with the current experimental protocol, primarily four compounds could be identified as having biological profiles deviating from the others. These compounds were trichloromethane, 1,2‐dichloroethane, 1,1,2,2‐tetrachloroethane and 2‐chloropropane. By identifying compounds with deviating/unique biological profiles, the present work forms a basis for future quantitative structure‐activity relationships analysis of these data.