©1996-2018. All Rights Reserved. Online Journal of Veterinary Research . You may not store these pages in any form except
for your own personal use. All other usage or distribution is illegal under
international copyright treaties. Permission to use any of these pages in any
other way besides the
before mentioned must be gained in writing from the publisher.
This article is exclusively copyrighted in its entirety to OJVR.This article may be copied once but may not
be, reproduced or re-transmitted without
the express permission of the editors. This journal satisfies the refereeing
requirements (DEST) for the Higher Education Research Data Collection
(Australia). Linking:To link
to this page or any pages linking to this page you must link directly to this
page only here rather than put up your own page.
OJVRTM
Online
Journal of Veterinary Research ©
Volume 15 (5):
424-434, 2011. Redacted 2018.
Histopathologic
changes in the tissue of C57BL/6 mice (Mus
musculus) evoked by sub-acute exposure to
tungsten alloy via gavage dosing.
Robert V Hawley1*, Pedro J Rico1,
Ranjana Verma2, Eric Lombardini3
and Zygmunt Galdzicki2
1Department of Laboratory Animal Medicine, Uniformed
Services University of the Health Sciences, 2Department of Anatomy,
Physiology & Genetics, Uniformed Services University of the Health
Sciences, 3Division of Comparative Pathology, Veterinary Sciences
Department, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, Uniformed Services
University of the Health Sciences, USA. *Corresponding author. Email:
Robert.Hawley@amedd.army.mil
Hawley RV, Rico
PJ, Verma R, Lombardini E, Galdzicki Z., Histopathologic changes in the tissue of
C57BL/6 mice (Mus musculus) evoked by sub-acute
exposure to tungsten alloy via gavage dosing, Onl J
Vet Res., 15 (5): 424-434, 2011. Substantiated health and environmental effects of lead
and depleted uranium has prompted many countries, including the United States
of America, to add tungsten alloy (91% tungsten/6% nickel/3% cobalt) to their
munitions as replacements for these metals. Despite the increased military and
industrial use of tungsten alloy, little is known of its effects on health and
the environment. Several studies have discussed the toxic effects of tungsten
and tungsten alloy, and we recently reported epigenetic changes triggered by
tungsten and tungsten alloy in various mammalian cell cultures. In rats,
secondary to tungsten alloy implants inserted into muscle, neoplastic
transformation to rhabdomyosarcomas was reported. In the present study, the
effects of tungsten alloy were assessed via gavaging
100 µg/g/day of tungsten alloy solution for 30 days to C57BL/6 mice once a day
for a period of 30 days. Comparison
groups of cobalt and control group were also gavaged with 100 µg/g/day of cobalt chloride solution and water,
respectively. At the conclusion
of the 30 day study period, mice were euthanized and tissues were collected for
histopathologic examination. Neoplastic changes were not detected in any
group. However, significant
histopathological findings were noted within two body systems, notably the gastrointestinal
(GI) and urogenital (U/G) systems.
Statistically significant GI lesions were noted in the tungsten alloy
group in comparison with both the cobalt and control groups. Testicular changes in the form of
seminiferous degeneration were observed in both the tungsten alloy and cobalt
treatment groups. In conclusion, while
no neoplastic changes were noted, the histopathological findings can be
correlated to tungsten alloy specific toxicity and thus warrant further study.
Key words: Tungsten alloy
(WA), tungsten (W), gastrointestinal (GI), and urogenital (U/G) systems
FULL-TEXT (SUBSCRIPTION OR PURCHASE TITLE $25USD)