Abnormal development of cardiovascular systems in rat embryos treated with bisdiamine.

Administration of N,N'-bis(dichloroacetyl)-1,8-octamethylenediamine, bisdiamine, in pregnant Donryu rats on day 10 of gestation induces a high incidence of cardiovascular anomalies in fetuses. Bisdiamine administration induced aplasia of the sixth aortic arch artery, with both the right and left primitive pulmonary arteries being directly linked to the truncus, and resulting in four types of malformation of pulmonary arteries (PAs). When two primitive PAs shared a single root, the consequence was either pulmonary trunk hypoplasia, as is seen in tetralogy of Fallot, or type I persistent truncus arteriosus (PTA) as classified by Collet and Edwards. When root portions of two PAs did not fuse, either type II or type III PTA resulted. In controls, the right dorsal aorta (DA) between the right seventh intersegmental artery (IA) and the site where both DAs fuse degenerated and the left aortic arch (AA) and the right subclavian artery (SA) were formed. Bisdiamine administration induced two additional types of vascular anomalies. In one of these, the right DA between the right 4AA and the right 7IA degenerated and a left AA accompanied by an aberrant right SA resulted. In the other type, the left DA between the left 4AA and the left 7IA degenerated and a right AA accompanied by an aberrant left SA resulted. These results indicate that administration of bisdiamine induces malformation in the great blood vessels by disturbing persistency and degeneration of aortic arch arteries and DAs.