Though partly bound by placental metallothionein, cadmium easily enters fetal circulation and exerts toxic effects in offspring tissues and organs. The synthesis of DNA in different organs of rat offspring, whose dams were exposed to cadmium during pregnancy was examined in this study. Scintillation technique was applied for quantification of tritiated thymidine incorporation. In most studied organs a significant increase of DNA synthesis was noted, pronounced especially in small intestine and bone marrow (over 2-fold increase in comparison with controls). In view of known carcinogenic effects of cadmium in animals, our data suggest alteration of cell cycle in selected organs, which may correspond to increase of proliferation rate typical of neoplastic conditions. Further studies are necessary for correlating these findings with proliferation indices and expression of protooncogenes in situ.

Keywords: carcinogenesis, scintillation technique, DNA synthesis, metallothionein, Placenta, Cadmium