Study on the Effect of Carbon Monoxide Intoxication to Serotonergic Neurons in Midbrain Raphe Nuclei of the Rat

ABSTRACT

The experimental study was performed to investigate the influence of carbon monoxide on the serotonergic neurons of the raphe nuclei in rat midbrain. For this study, Sprague Dawley rats were intoxicated with 2,000ppm carbon monoxide for 5 hours and serial sections of the midbrain were obtained and stained irnmunohistochemically using anti-serotonin anti sera. The changes in number of serotonergic neurons were analyzed. Total number of serotonergic neurons in rnidbrain of normal rats were 37,977 +/- 1,233.3 After carbon monoxide intoxication, the numbers of serotonergic neurons in midbrain nuclei were 28.138 +/- 3.321.8 CO-intoxication reduced the number of neurons in the midbrain nuclei by 25.9%. Especially diminished the number of B8 cell group by 32.6%.