FIG. 4.

Effect of ofloxacin with or without magnesium deficiency on tenocytes. Rats were treated with ofloxacin and fed a magnesium-deficient diet (Table 1). The number of pathologically altered cells increased in samples from juvenile rats of groups III and V (treated once with ofloxacin), while the number of pathologically altered cells was markedly increased in those rats of groups IV and VI that had additionally received an Mg-deficient diet. The evaluation of tendons from the adult control rats and rats of groups VII and VIII (treated once or five times with ofloxacin) did not reveal a significant number of pathologically altered cells, while the rats of group IX (treated ten times with ofloxacin) showed pathological alterations similar to those observed in ofloxacin-treated juvenile animals. The number of cells was counted by scoring 50 cells from 15 different microscopic fields. The diagram shows the number of pathologically altered cells (mean values and standard deviations) of the results obtained from three different rats.