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    STUDIA BIOLOGIA - Issue no. 2 / 2005  
         
  Article:   COMPARATIVE STRUCTURAL AND ULTRASTRUCTURAL ASPECTS OF THE TOXIC EFFECT OF CARBOPLATIN AND CISPLATIN AT THE LEVEL OF THE THYMUS OF THE WHITE WISTAR RATS.

Authors:  CRISTINA PAŞCA, VICTORIA-DOINA SANDU, MARIA GORDAN.
 
       
         
  Abstract:  Carboplatin and Cisplatin, cytostatics belonging to the platinum drugs family, widely and efficiently used in the cancer treatment, have a different toxic effect on the rat thymus when they are administered in equivalent doses, in monochemotherapy. Carboplatin seems to possess a higher and longer toxic activity compared to Cisplatin, which appears immediately, aggravates progressively, but has a reversible character. Carboplatin determines a significant necrosis, necrobiosis and agglutination of the thymocytes, especially in the cortical areas, inducing an atrophied aspect of many thymic lobules. Besides, moderate vascular disturbances appear, consisting of: stasis, congestion, massive haemorrhages and diffuse intravascular coagulation phenomena. Ultrastructurally, both the epithelio-reticular cells and especially thymocytes are affected by some degenerative processes (these cells have a vacuolised cytoplasm, pyknotic or altered nuclei, swollen and greatly modified mitochondria, and, zonally, broken cell membranes which allow the cell constituents to split out). As a consequence of the Carboplatin administration, both in the cortex and medulla of the lobules, a large number of apoptotic bodies appears. In the spaces created by the lysis processes and in some perivascular areas, a massive collagen proliferation could be noticed. The involution and fibrosis of the thymus were correlated with a marked increase of the eosinophil, macrophage and mastocyte number. The toxic effect of the Cisplatin at the level of the thymus seems to be similar but the structural and ultrastructural alterations were less grave, and did not aggravate significantly during the whole experimental period, affected temporary especially the cellular and more discrete the vascular component in the thymus, had a zonal and a reversible character, the recovery process being more intense than in the groups treated with Carboplatin.  
         
     
         
         
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