Cytology of bone marrow in acute, sub-acute and chronic CCL₄-toxicity in female Wistar rats

Abstract

The cytopathology of carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄) in the liver and kidney has been widely studied and well documented. This study is a look at bone marrow responses to acute, sub-acute and chronic CCl₄ toxicities in female Wistar rats. Sixteen (16) female Wistar rats, with a mean body weight of 180 g, were used for this study. The rats were randomly allocated into four groups of four rats each. Group I served as the control and was untreated. Group II was the acute study group and received 20% CCl₄ at 3 mL/kg body weight, intraperitoneally (i.p.), stat. Group III was the sub-acute study group and received 15% CCl₄ at 3 mL/kg body weight, i.p. every 5 days for 28 days, while group IV rats were the chronic study group and received 10% CCl₄ at 3 mL/kg body weight, i.p., every 5 days for 90 days. The proliferation and maturation of both the erythroid and myeloid cell lines were evaluated using indices that analysed the rates and ratios of proliferating blast cells to mature cells. Results indicated that the myeloid to erythroid ratio was not significantly affected by CCL₄ toxicity, and proliferation indices showed a significant increase only at the sub-acute level of the myeloid series. However sub-acute and chronic CCl₄ toxicity significantly affected metamyelocytes maturation. Thus, this study showed that while the bone marrow still retained haematopoietic responsiveness under CCl₄ toxicity, at sub-acute and chronic levels, the latter stages of myelocyte maturation were adversely affected.