Effect of 5-fluorouracil on rat bone marrow
Tewari, S.P.; Srivastava, R.K.; Verma, P.; Zaidi, S.H.
Indian Journal of Cancer 21(3): 99-101
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-509X PMID: 6537397 Document Number: 221876
A total of 40 adult white rats were given a single dose of 5-fluorouracil 12 mg/kg body weight i.p. Forty control rats were injected with normal saline. Five tests and 5 control rats were sacrificed every day 3 h after a 0.5 ml injection of 0.01% colchicine. Bone marrow taken out was treated with hypotonic saline and was fixed in Ornoy's fixative. Flame-dried slides were stained with 2% buffered Giemsa as well as with methyl green-pyronin stain. Centric or subcentric vacuole formation was observed, the size of which was as much as to give the nuclei the shape of a ring, number of which increased with the time interval it was maximum after 96 h, after which it declined slowly to come to normal on the 8th day. This reversible change was attributed to the growth imbalance imposed upon the cell due to prevention of both DNA and RNA synthesis and was concluded as the earliest sign of cytotoxic effect of 5-fluorouracil.