Nerve agents exposure histopathology

Studies in experimental animals have shown that repeated low-dose exposure to nerve agents cause histopathological lesions in the nervous system. The delayed neurotoxic lesions in the spinal cord due to low dose repeated inhalation exposure of sarin in two species of rodents, rats and mice, have been reported by Husain et al. Rats exposed to sarin aerosols (12.5 mg/m for 20 min) daily for 10 days showed swollen axons without fragmentation and loss of myelin in a few places of the spinal cord. The axonal degeneration in the spinal cord was not observed in rats exposed to sarin. Mice exposed to sarin aerosols (5 mg/m for 20 min) daily for 10 days showed focal axonal degeneration in the spinal cord. This study concluded that mice are sensitive to... 

Britt, J.O., Jr., Martin, J.L., Okerberg, C.V., Dick, E.J., Jr., (2000). Histopathologic changes in the hrain, heart, and skeletal muscle of rhesus macaques, ten days after exposure to soman (an organophosphorus nerve agent). Comp. Med. 50 133-9. Carmeliet, E., Vereecke, J. (2002). Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston. 

Bloch-Shilderman, E., Rabinovitz, I., Egoz, I., Raveh, L., Allon, N., Grauer, E., Gilat, E., Weissman, B.A. (2008). Subchronic exposure to low-doses of the nerve agent VX physiological, behavioral, histopathological and neurochemical studies. Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol. 231 17-23. 

---