Cytotoxicity of Environmentally Relevant Concentrations of Aluminum in Murine Thymocytes and Lymphocytes
Figure 1
Histograms showing the effects of aluminum exposure to thymocytes. PI fluorescence intensity (-axis) is plotted against cell count (-axis). Histogram (a) shows untreated thymocytes where most of the cells have low PI intensity, which is characteristic of healthy cells whose membranes exclude PI. In (b) thymocytes were exposed to 2% ethanol, and a large number of cells show very high PI intensity. These are dead cells, whose plasma membrane has lost integrity. (c) and (d) show the gradual increase in PI intensity in thymocytes exposed to 20 μM of AlCl3 at five- and 25-minute exposure. The number of dead cells did not increase with AlCl3 exposure. There is, however, a shift in the distribution of healthy cells to the right, indicating an increased uptake of PI, reflecting cell damage. For purposes of quantitation, all cells falling under the bar labeled R1 are considered injured.
