De Waal E J, Schuurman H J, Rademakers L H, Van Loveren H, Vos J G
National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
Arch Toxicol. 1993;67(3):186-92. doi: 10.1007/BF01973306.
Bis(tri-n-butyltin)oxide (TBTO) induces cortical atrophy in the rat thymus. We studied the potential involvement of the cortical epithelium in TBTO-induced thymotoxicity by (immuno) histology and electron microscopy. Juvenile male Wistar rats were orally intubated once with either 30 or 90 mg/kg TBTO and sacrificed 4 or 10 days later. A dose-dependent thymic atrophy occurred. Anti-keratin labelling showed epithelial cell aggregation in some animals at 10 days after exposure to 90 mg/kg TBTO, when recovery of the thymus was apparent. At the ultrastructural level, a relative shift was observed from "pale" to darker epithelial cell subtypes at the 30 mg/kg dose level, both at day 4 and day 10 after intubation. This phenomenon was not observed after exposure to 90 mg/kg TBTO. Both the altered keratin distribution and the increased electron density of the epithelium probably represent non-specific phenomena. The present morphological observations support the concept that TBTO affects the thymus via its action on lymphoid cells rather than on the epithelial compartment.
双（三正丁基锡）氧化物（TBTO）可导致大鼠胸腺皮质萎缩。我们通过（免疫）组织学和电子显微镜研究了皮质上皮在TBTO诱导的胸腺毒性中的潜在作用。幼年雄性Wistar大鼠经口一次性给予30或90 mg/kg TBTO，4或10天后处死。出现了剂量依赖性的胸腺萎缩。抗角蛋白标记显示，在暴露于90 mg/kg TBTO 10天后，一些动物的上皮细胞聚集，此时胸腺的恢复很明显。在超微结构水平上，插管后第4天和第10天，在30 mg/kg剂量水平观察到上皮细胞亚型从“浅色”到深色的相对转变。暴露于90 mg/kg TBTO后未观察到这种现象。角蛋白分布的改变和上皮细胞电子密度的增加可能都代表非特异性现象。目前的形态学观察结果支持这样的观点，即TBTO通过对淋巴细胞而非上皮细胞区室的作用来影响胸腺。
