Studies on Chronic Toxicity of Kanamycin

Abstract

Kanamycin is an antibiotic of Streptomyces discovered by Umezawa and others¹⁾, and was purified as its sulfate, C₁₈H₃₆O₁₁N₄•H₂S0₄•H₂O²⁾. The potency of this antibiotic was decided to be expressed by the weight of its base .

Takeuchi and others³⁾ studied the toxicity of this antibiotic and reported that it was low in acute toxicity to mice, rats and rabbits, and in chronic toxicity to mice and dogs. This antibiotic is water-soluble and basic, therefore, further detailed studies on chronic toxicity, especially to nervous system, were required before the clinical studies. The present paper describes studies on chronic toxicity to dogs and cats and on ototoxicity to rats.