RESUMO
Paraquat is one the most popular herbicides in agriculture in Japan. To study the chronic toxicological effects of paraquat on animals, rats were fed a paraquat-containing diet for 1 year and 2 months (1, 5, 25mg/kg of body weight/day). Paraquat administration induced serious histochemical changes in various organs, such as the lung, heart, kidney and liver in rast. Pulmonary fibrosis occurred in the group of rats given 1mg paraquat/kg of body weight/day in diet.<BR>The alkaline phosphatase activity and creatinine content in the blood serum significantly increased. The concentrations of cholesterol, triglyceride and phospholipid in the serum decreased significantly.<BR>A significant increase of lipid peroxidation was observed in the brain, kidney and liver.