© 1989 Oxford University Press
research-article |
Effect of Acute Propanil Exposure on the Immune Response of C57BI/6 Mice
*Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Little Rock, Arkansas 72205
Department of Pharmacology and Interdisciplinary Toxicology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Little Rock, Arkansas 72205
Received June 20, 1988; accepted December 2, 1988
Effect of Acute Propanil Exposure on the Immune Response of C57BI/6 Mice. BARNETT, J. B., AND GANDY, J. (1989). Fundam. Appl. Toxicol. 12, 757–764. Propanil is a herbicide that is used extensively in rice farming to kill weeds without damaging the rice plant The immunotoxic effects of acute exposure to propanil were determined in adult C57B1/6 female mice exposed intraperitoneally to propanil at doses of 0, 10, 25, 50, 100,200, or 400 mg/kg body wt. One week following exposure, the immune competency of the animals was assessed. Contact hypersensitivity response (CHR), blastogenic response to T- and B-cell-specific mitogens, and mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) were significantly depressed only in propanil-treated animals at 400 mg/kg. However, the number of splenic antibody-producing cells was also significantly depressed in a dose-dependent manner at the lower doses of 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg. In addition, a significant reduction in the thymus weight and an increase in absolute and relative spleen weight were also measured in animals treated with 200 and 400 mg/kg. The increase in spleen weight also showed a concomitant rise in spleen cellularity. These data indicate that propanil has a dose-dependent immunotoxic effect on the adult mouse that affects primarily the humoral response