title: Electron microscopy studies on the neurotoxic effect of sodium tellurite in the central nervous system of the adult rat.
abstract: We observed demyelination and rapid reparative remyelination in the cerebral white matter, cortex and optic nerve of adult rats intoxicated with sodium tellurite (1.25 and 6.25 mg/kg Te4+). Hypomyelination dominated by the seventh day and its intensity was dependent on the dose Te4+. Reparative myelination was not completed in the brains 30 days after the intoxication with tellurium. In addition to myelin changes, signs of neuronal and astrocytic damage were seen: dark neurons and swelling of the astrocytic processes and synapses in the cerebral cortex. We postulate that tellurium evokes not only the myelin sheath and a myelin forming glia damage but also ultrastructural changes in some axons, and reaction of fibrillar astrocytes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropathology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Smiałek
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gajkowska
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Otrebska
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000648:ultrastructure; D001369:Axons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002493:Central Nervous System Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000473:pathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D003711:Demyelinating Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000473:pathology; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009186:Myelin Sheath / Q000187:drug effects / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009900:Optic Nerve / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013691:Tellurium / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: C032039:sodium tellurate(IV); D013691:Tellurium