The ability of the murine erythron to respond to hemolytic doses of phenylhydrazine is significantly impaired by exposures to 10 ppm benzene.
Male C57Bl mice were given 50 exposures (6 h/d x 5 d/wk x 10 wk) to 10 ppm benzene. At regular intervals during the course of the exposures, the numbers of erythroid colony-forming cells (CFU-E) and the numbers of granulocytic colony-forming cells (GM-CFU-C) were assayed. At the end of the benzene exposures, additional groups of mice were given 4 daily injections of phenylhydrazine (PHZ) to induce anemia. During the course of the exposures, the numbers of colony-forming cells from benzene-exposed mice were, with infrequent exceptions, statistically indistinguishable from the numbers of these cells in air-exposed mice. However, in response to the PHZ-induced anemia, the numbers of late erythroid (CFU-E) and granulocytic (GM-CFU-C) progenitor cells were about 30% lower among benzene-exposed mice than among air-exposed mice. These results suggest that concentrations of benzene that induce little or no observable hematopoietic changes may, in fact, greatly alter the hematopoietic capacity of an exposed individual.
Institute of Environmental Medicine, New York University Medical Center, NY 10016.
A M
AM
Dempster
C A
CA
Snyder
D000743:Anemia, Hemolytic / Q000139:chemically induced; D000818:Animals; D001554:Benzene / Q000633:toxicity*; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000187:drug effects*; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000187:drug effects*; D006461:Hemolysis / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010659:Phenylhydrazines / Q000633:toxicity*
D010659:Phenylhydrazines; C030299:phenylhydrazine; D001554:Benzene