Repeated exposure of C57Bl mice to inhaled benzene at 10 ppm markedly depressed erythropoietic colony formation.
Exposure of C57Bl mice to 10 ppm benzene (the current occupational exposure limit) for 6 h/day, 5 days/week causes a progressive depression in the in vitro colony forming ability of one of the erythroid progenitor cells, the colony-forming unit-erythroid (CFU-E). Colony growth of cells from exposed mice was only 5% of control colony growth after 178 days of exposure. Burst-forming-cell growth was depressed to 55% of control growth after 66 days but returned to control growth values at 178 days. In addition, benzene-exposed mice exhibited depressions in the numbers of splenic nucleated red cells and in the numbers of circulating red cells and lymphocytes. These results suggest that low-level exposure to benzene may be hematotoxic.
D000818:Animals; D001554:Benzene / Q000633:toxicity*; D003864:Depression, Chemical; D004906:Erythrocyte Count; D004920:Erythropoiesis / Q000187:drug effects*; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000187:drug effects; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D013154:Spleen / Q000187:drug effects
D001554:Benzene