THE INFLUENCE OF DIETARY-CADMIUM ON HEMATOLOGIC PARAMETERS AND PHAGOCYTIC-ACTIVITY OF LEUKOCYTES IN RATS

Male Wistar rats were fed by semisynthetic diets supplemented with fee ding yeast Candida utilis with low (3 mg/kg) or high (90 mg/kg) conten t of organically bound cadmium and/or cadmium in the form of CdCl2 (9 mg/kg of diet). Hematological parameters and phagocytic activity of th e animals were determined after 28 days of the experiment. Rats on die t with yeast high in Cd or with CdCl2 supplement had higher levels (P < 0.05) of cadmium in liver and kidney than controls. The animals from group 3 (high Cd content yeast) had significantly higher hemoglobin v alues (P < 0.05) compared to group 2 (low Cd content yeast). Number of monocytes differed (P < 0.05) between group 4 (low Cd yeast and CdCl2 in the diet) and group 3. Other parameters of red blood counts and wh ite blood counts, and phagocytic activity were unaffected by the exper imental treatments.