Previous studies in our laboratory have indicated that in utero
chlordane exposure caused a significant enhancement in the survival of the offspring to influenza virus
infection. Further studies, reported here, show that the non-specific delayed type
hypersensitivity (DTH) response to
oxazolone at 100 days of age, but not at 30 days of age, was significantly depressed. In contrast, the Con A-induced blastogenic response of spleen cells from
chlordane-treated offspring was not depressed and was, in fact, significantly enhanced. However, neither the response to PHA nor to LPS
mitogens was significantly altered. In utero exposure to
chlordane significantly depressed the mixed lymphocyte reactivity (MLR) of spleen cells from male offspring, whereas females showed no significant alteration of MLR. The significant depression of the DTH and MLR responses supports our previous reports of enhanced survival of influenza virus
infection following in utero exposure to
chlordane, since active DTH contributes to the pathology of influenza virus
infection in mice. The normal or enhanced T-cell
mitogen response suggested that the
chlordane-induced depression of DTH and MLR was not due to overt toxicity to T-cells.