An overview of butanol-induced developmental neurotoxicity and the potential mechanisms related to these observed effects
The purpose of this article is to briefly review the published literature on the developmental neurotoxic effects, including potential mechanisms of four butanols: n-butanol, sec-butanol, tert-butanol, isobutanol, and identify data gaps and research needs for evaluation of human health risks in this area. The mechanistic data for the butanols support developmental neurotoxicity that has been observed in some of the rodent studies. However, careful studies evaluating the neurobehavior of developing pups in sensitive strains, as well as characterizing the plausible mechanisms involved, need to be conducted in order to further elucidate the neurodevelopmental effects with butanols for risk evaluation.