Methanol poisoning in clofibrate treated rats

ABSTRACT

Small laboratory animals do not exhibit the common symptoms observed in humans poisoned with methanol. This presents a serious problem in the face of attempts trying to study, on experimental basis, the mechanism and treatment of human methanol poisoning. In this study, a suitable experimental animal model for this purpose has been developed. This was made possible by speeding up the rate of conversion of methanol to formate in vivo in rats through the use of clofibrate, a compound that increases hepatic catalase activity, and by concomitantly slowing down the rate of formate disappearance from the body by the use of methotrexate. Methanol administration to such rats resulted in a very marked accumulation of formate in the blood accompanied by the development of severe acidosis. These two changes are the most important characteristics of the human methanol poisoning syndrome. It is hoped that this animal model would be a useful tool in future methanol poisoning studies