Acute toxicity of gliotoxin in hamsters.

Acute toxicity studies of gliotoxin were done in hamsters given oral doses of 15, 25 and 35 mg/kg of gliotoxin. Surviving hamsters were killed at 72 h post-treatment. Most hamsters in the middle and high dose groups were dead or moribund within 24 h. Hamsters in these dose groups that survived for greater than 12 h had hepatic alterations of necrotizing and proliferative cholangitis with marked lymphoplasmacytic pericholangitis.