Repeated exposure of C57B1 mice to inhaled benzene at 10 ppm markedly depressed erythropoietic colony formation

Abstract

Exposure of C57B1 mice to 10 ppm benzene (the current occupational exposure limit) for 6 h/day, 5 days/week causes a progressive depression in the in vitro colony forming ability of one of the erythroid progenitor cells, the colony-forming unit-erythroid (CFU-E). Colony growth of cells from exposed mice was only 5% of control colony growth after 178 days of exposure. Burst-forming-cell growth was depressed to 55% of control growth after 66 days but returned to control growth values at 178 days. In addition, benzene-exposed mice exhibited depressions in the numbers of splenic nucleated red cells and in the numbers of circulating red cells and lymphocytes. These results suggest that low-level exposure to benzene may be hematotoxic.