The effect of selenous acid on the hematopoietic system of chicken embryos

Abstract

The yolk sac injection of selenous acid into fertilized White Plymouth Rock eggs during day 4 of incubation produced anemia in a number of malformed and grossly normal 19-day-old embryos. The anemia was characterized by low red blood cell counts and hemoglobin values. The mean corpuscular hemoglobin showed a wide range of variation around the mean especially in the grossly normal embryos. Although a higher percentage of malformed embryos were anemic, some of the grossly normal embryos had lower red blood cell counts and hemoglobin values. The number of circulating white blood cells (granulocytes) of 19-day-old embryos injected with selenium on day 4 of incubation was not significantly different from those of normal controls. Radioautographic studies revealed that, in vivo, selenous acid caused a decrease in the uptake of tritiated thymidine in the circulating blood cells of 4-day-old embryos. The in vitro uptake of tritiated thymidine also decreased in the lymphocytes of the bursa of Fabricius and spleen removed from 19-day-old embryos treated with selenous acid during early development.