Impact of chronic low dose dioxin exposure during pregnancy on the mouse pancreas from both dams and their male and female offspring

Purpose: to determine whether exposure to chronic low dose dioxin impacts pancreas physiology during pregnancy (dams) and/or pancreas development (offspring) Overall design: Female C57Bl/6 mice were injected s.c. 2x/week with either corn oil (control) or 20 ng/kg/d TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) starting prior to mating and continuing throughout pregnancy until birth. Whole pancreas tissue was extracted from both dams and their offspring on the day of birth. One male and one female pup was used from each litter.