Figure 1.
Experimental timeline. Male and female C57BL/6J mice were exposed to either HEPA-filtered air (99.9% effective) or PQ aerosols (130 μg/m3) beginning on experimental day 0. Subsets of male mice were sacrificed on experimental days 10, 28, 56, and 303 (Time points Nos 1–4) and brain, lung, and kidney were collected for PQ quantitation. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was collected from a subset of males immediately following the end of exposure (Time point No. 2) to assess the acute effects of PQ inhalation on the lung. In order to assess the long-term effects of PQ inhalation on the lung, perfused lungs were collected from additional subset of males at Time point No. 4 for histological analysis. Olfactory discrimination training/testing began on experimental day 163, 135 days after the end of exposure. Abbreviations: PQ, paraquat; HEPA, high-efficiency particulate air.