Some selected peripheral blood and haemopoietic system indices in Wistar rats with chronic vanadium intoxication.

1. Wistar rats of both sexes received vanadium in drinking water in the amount of 23-29 mg/kg body weight in the form of ammonium metavanadate (AMV) for a period of 2, 4 and 8 weeks. 2. Animals treated in this way ate less food and drank less AMV solution as compared with the amount of water consumed by the controls; they suffered from diarrhoea, and owing to this the increment in body weight was reduced. 3. Vanadium decreased erythropoiesis and maturation of red blood cells, which was expressed by a reduced erythrocyte count and haemoglobin level and increased reticulocyte and polychromatophilic erythrocyte count in the peripheral blood. 4. The composition percentage of the bone marrow cells and the peripheral blood leukocyte count did not undergo noticeable changes under the influence of vanadium.