Haematological abnormalities in mice continuously exposed to ethanol vapour.

Mice exposed to high concentrations of ethanol vapour (25-38 mg/l of inhaled air) for 24 h develop leucopenia, neutropenia, lymphopenia, monocytopenia and thrombocytopenia but not anaemia or macrocytosis. Their bone marrows usually give normal deoxyuridine-suppressed values and contain normal numbers of granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cells and slightly reduced numbers of megakaryocytes. Mice exposed to lower concentrations of ethanol vapour (10-25 mg/l of inhaled air) for 20-43 days develop thrombocytopenia only and, like the mice exposed for 24 h, do not develop anaemia or macrocytosis. The bone marrows of mice exposed to ethanol for 24 h or for 20-43 days, did not show either megaloblastic or sideroblastic erythropoiesis. The data suggest that the ethanol-treated mouse may provide a useful model for the investigation of the mechanisms underlying some but not all of the ethanol-induced haematological changes seen in humans.