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Ultrastructural alterations of rat brain microglial cells and pericytes after chronic lead poisoning

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Summary

Wistar rats of both sexes and the same litter were exposed to chronic lead intoxication from birth untill sacrifice 9 months later. Lead was administered as 0.4% solution of lead nitrate in drinking water. Samples from the parietal brain cortex were examined electron microscopically following intracardiac perfusion with paraformaldehyde-glutaraldehyde solution. Similar changes were observed in the microglial cells and the vascular pericytes whereas all the other tissue elements appeared intact. Both cell types hypertrophied, the microglia assumed characteristic spindle or rod shape, the cell organelles increased, the microglial endoplasmic reticulum widened strongly and a large number of lipid inclusions appeared. The latter consisted of large lipid droplets of varying size and shape, containing multiple zones of low density, and a dense component with a coarse granular structure. The similarity in the response of both cell entities to the lesion as well as some probable functions of microglial cells and their relationship to vascular pericytes are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Regeneration Research Laboratory, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia 31, Bulgaria

    Dimiter V. Markov & Radka N. Dimova

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  1. Dimiter V. Markov
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  2. Radka N. Dimova
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Markov, D.V., Dimova, R.N. Ultrastructural alterations of rat brain microglial cells and pericytes after chronic lead poisoning. Acta Neuropathol 28, 25–35 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00687515

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00687515

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