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. 1982 Feb;43:129–135. doi: 10.1289/ehp.8243129

Assessment of myelotoxicity caused by environmental chemicals.

G A Boorman, M I Luster, J H Dean, M L Campbell
PMCID: PMC1568900  PMID: 6277616

Abstract

Potential antineoplastic agents must be screened for the delayed toxicity that occurs in many cases of drug-induced bone marrow aplasia. In vitro clonal assays for hematopoietic progenitor cells have been developed to assess the degree of myelotoxicity. This adverse side effect is often the limiting factor in the development of new cancer chemotherapeutics. In addition, many environmental chemicals are cytotoxic to rapidly proliferating cells, but a systematic assessment of their myelotoxicity has not been performed. We have used clonal marrow assays to investigate a panel of chemicals including 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, polybrominated biphenyls, diethylstilbestrol, benzo(a)pyrene and indomethacin. All were immunotoxic, some to pleuripotent hemopoetic stem cells and other to granulocyte-macrophage progenitors, and at concentrations below those causing other toxic manifestations. This shows that these bone marrow clonal assays, and hopefully future one for erythroid, B- and T-lymphocytes, and megakaryocytes, will provide the specificity and sensitivity necessary to delineate the myelotoxicity of a broad spectrum of environmental chemicals.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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