Effects of low doses of dietary lead on puberty onset in female mice

Female Swiss mice typically display signs of puberty at about 33-37 days of age. In the present investigation (96 female mice tested in 8 Pb exposure levels, n = 12 per exposure level), the time to puberty onset was markedly influenced by exposure to dietary lead. While modest increases in blood lead concentrations from a normal background of 2-3 to 13.2 μg/dl delayed the onset of puberty by 15-20% to about 40-43 days, reducing blood lead from 2-3 to 0.7 μg/dl was associated with an acceleration of puberty to 21 days, an enhancement by over 30%. This dose-response relationship represents novel findings of possible ecological as well as public health significance and indicates that lead is able to induce biologically significant changes at blood lead levels previously thought to be without effect.