[Age and peripheral blood and phagocytosis indices in gnotobiotic and ordinary Wistar rats]

Age-related features of the peripheral blood (red cell and leukocyte counts, hemoglobin level) and phagocytic activity of peritoneal macrophages were studied in experiments on gnotobiotic and conventional Wistar male rats aged 2, 5, 9 and 35 months. With aging, the conventional Wistar rats showed a significantly lower phagocytic activity in the presence of a progressively increasing leukocyte count as compared with the gnotobiotic animals. The red cell count and hemoglobin level dropped in the conventional species with age, while the gnotobiotic ones manifested no appreciable changes in the indices reviewed.