Chlorphentermine-induced abnormal cytoplasmic inclusions in peripheral blood cells of rats and guinea pigs

Abstract

Oral administration of chlorphentermine to rats and guinea pigs caused the formation of abnormal lamellated cytoplasmic inclusions in peripheral blood cells (lymphocytes, neutrophils, monocytes, plasma cells). Short-term experiments in rats revealed the lymphocytes to be most susceptible, containing abnormal inclusions after a single dose of chlorphentermine. The present ultrastructural findings correspond to those previously obtained in various other tissues of animals treated with chlorphentermine or with a variety of other drugs of amphiphilic character, and they are interpreted according to the previously proposed concept of drug-induced phospholipidosis. On the basis of the present results, lymphocytes of peripheral blood are proposed to be useful material for the examination of a particular side effect common to various amphiphilic compounds, i.e., drug-induced generalized phospholipidosis.