[Use of alpha-tocopherol in correction of red blood (erythron) system disorders in rats with acute nitrite intoxication].

The erythron system response to acute nitrite intoxication and the possible antioxidant correction was studied in rats poisoned with sodium nitrite with and without pretreatment with alpha-tocopherol. The state of the experimental; animals was characterized by monitoring the peripheral blood parameters, the surface cytoarhitectonics and the hemolytic activity of erythrocytes, the level of methemoglobin and nitrate ions in the blood, and the cellular composition of hemopoietic organs, and the state of intracell erythrodiuresis. It is established that the acute intoxication with sodium nitrite leads to a hemolytic anemia accompanied by reactive ejection of reticulocytes from the red bone marrow, methemoglobinemia, leukocytolysis, and a decrease in the adhesive and phagocytic activity of macrophages. The preliminary administration of alpha-tocopherol leads to a less pronounced intravascular hemolysis of erythrocytes, which is explained by reactivation of the intracellular mechanisms of erythrocyte destruction and by retention of the population of circulating erythrocytes with satisfactory characteristics of the morphofunctional state of the cell membrane.