The pathokinetics of acrylamide intoxication: a reassessment of the problem.

Acrylamide was given intraperitoneally to rats (30 mg/kg/day, five times/week) for 3 weeks, and the nervous and muscle tissues were examined by conventional methods over 5 weeks. Three striking cellular changes were observed. 1 Scattered degeneration of many Purkinje cells from 5 days onwards. 2 Widespread swelling and argyrophilia of nerve terminals from 10 days in both PNS and CNS. Motor and sensory endings were equally affected in all muscles examined. Synaptic and preterminal swelling also occurred in spinal cord, brain stem, and in certain cerebellar terminals. Degeneration occasionally followed this change, particularly in sensory nerve fibres, but not necessarily. 3 Chromatolysis in spinal ganglion cells and occasionally in anterior horn cells from 7 days onwards before the onset of axonal degeneration. This unique sequence of events is discussed in the light of the metabolic and other changes described by earlier authors.