Early neuronal alterations caused by experimental thinner inhalation in young rats

Young rats were treated with thinner inhalations (50 and 100 p.p.m., v/v). The brains of treated and control animals were studied with standard techniques of light and electron microscopy and with ultrastructural cytochemical method for localization of RNA. No alterations were found in the group treated with a single session of inhalation, irrespective of the dose. Animals treated with 10 or 20 sessions showed altered neurons in cerebral cortex, caudate nucleus, hypothalamus and cerebellar cortex. More frequent alterations were: small nucleoli with loss of their reticular structure and a marked decrease of their normal granular component; diminution of perichromatin fibrils and of ribosomes. In the animals treated with high doses of thinner (20 sessions, 100 p.p.m.) a small number of neurons show an increased amount of lysosomes, autophagosomes and neurofibrillar hypertrophy. These results suggest that thinner inhalation causes an initial impairment of gene transcription and of RNA processing followed by neuronal degeneration.