Abstract
Male mice (25–30 g) were injected (ip) with 0, 3.5 × 106 , or 17.5 × 106 mol trimethyltin bromide (TMT), triethyltin bromide (TET), tri‐n‐propyltin chloride (TPT), or tri‐n‐butyltin bromide (TBT) per kg. Additional groups of mice were also injected (ip) with either 0 or 17.5 × 106 mol sodium bromide (NaBr) or 17.5 × 106 mol stannic bromide (SnBr 4 ) per kg. The mice were tested with maximal electroshock seizure (MES) at 0.5, 4, 21–24, and 96 h following exposure to the organotin compounds. Mice exposed to TMT, TET, TPT, or TBT exhibited dose‐dependent decreases in MES severity as evaluated by seizure‐grade distributions and duration of tonic seizure phases. The tri‐n‐alkyltin compounds exhibited a structure‐activity relationship in their ability to decrease maximal responsiveness to the MES test. In order of decreasing ability they were: TMT > TET > TPT > TBT. Administration of NaBr and SnBr 4 did not alter MES responsiveness, indicating the essential role of the alkyl moieties of the tri‐n‐alkyltin compounds in producing alterations in central nervous system function.