Rise of the water F content to 20 ppm F led to decrease in
the spleen size and appearance of PS-exposed cells (Fig. 1) or
shrunken echinocytes (Fig. 2) in freshly drawn blood but was
not followed by further increase in the number of produced
reticulocytes in spite of sharp Hct fall. In rodents, spleen is a
primary site of erythropoiesis during entire life alongside with
bone marrow, therefore, its decreased size might indicate the
suppression of erythropoiesis. Besides, damage of the spleen
tissue results in incapacity to destroy increased number of
apoptotic cells. Earlier, high dietary F was shown to inhibit
the proliferation of splenocytes and suppress the development of spleen in young chickens [26] and induce morphological
abnormalities in the spleen of F-exposed mice [27, 28]. Moreover,
F accumulates mainly in the bone tissues thus influencing
the formation of hematopoietic progenitor cells in the bone
marrow cavities and inducing apoptosis of bone marrow cells