How exposure to ultrafine and fine particles of car smoke can alter erythrocyte forms of male mice

Abstract

Exposure to particulate matter (PM) has been identified as being responsible for affecting human health. Their impacts on erythrocytes are still unclear, especially PMs emitted from motor vehicles. This study investigated the correlation between exposures to inflammatory agents of particulate matters (in terms of ultrafine particles, or PM 0.1 , and fine particles, or PM 2.5 ) contained in gasoline engine car exhaust emissions and the deformation of mice erythrocytes. We used 65 male mice as experimental animals. The mice were exposed to the filtered and unfiltered PM 0.1 -PM 2.5 for 100 seconds for as long as 8 consecutive days. The mice from each group were sacrificed on the 8 th day of blood preparation. All blood samples were observed using a digital microscope (400x magnification) to calculate the amount of normal and deformed erythrocytes. The results showed that the increasing amount of PM 0.1 and PM 2.5 in the car smoke that was exposed to the mice caused the increasing of the erythrocyte deformation percentages. The erythrocyte deformation percentage was found linearly to the particle concentration.