Effects of nanocrystalline PbSe on hematopoietic system and bone marrow micronucleus rate of rats.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of lead selenide nanocrystals on hematopoietic system and bone marrow micronucleus rate of rats. METHOD: Specific pathogen free SD rats were randomly divided into 4 groups (8 rats in each group), and injected with of 0 (control group), 10 (low dose group), 20 (middle dose group), 30 mg/kg (high dose group) nanocrystalline PbSe, respectively. Seven weeks after injection, the blood was taken from rats for routine index detection; the number of micronucleus cells per 1000 polychromatic erythrocyte from bone marrow was counted. RESULTS: White blood cell (WBC), lymphocyte (LYM) count in low dose group rats, and WBC, LYM, granulocyte (GRN), monocytes (MOD) counts in high dose group significantly increased compared to those of control group. LYM% ratio decreased while GRN% ratio increased along with the increase of exposure dosage. Compared with those of the control group, levels of erythrocyte mean corpuscular volume (MCV) in low dose group, hemoglobin (HGB), red blood cell specific volume (HCT), MCV in middle dose group and red blood cell (RBC), HGB, HCT, MCV in high dose group, were markedly decreased. Red blood cell distribution width (RDW), blood platelet (PLT) levels in three exposure groups of were higher than those in control group. Marrow micronucleus test results showed that, the micronucleus rate rise in mid dose and high dose group compared with the control group, suggesting that nanocrystalline PbSe has genetic toxicity on rats. CONCLUSIONS: Nano PbSe can lead to changes in blood routine index and bone marrow micronucleus rate, and its toxicity was positively related to the dosage.