CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Carbon monoxide poisoning (CO) is preventable and avoidable. Hundreds of people die by acute intoxication to CO and many of them suffer the so-called ?late neurological syndrome? (LNS) with irreversible consequences. The aims of the present work were to assess the effects of an acute exposure to CO on the behavior, memory, anxiety and gait dynamics and to relate these changes to some prognostic biomarkers. To this end, adult rats were exposed to CO at acute doses (350 ppm for 20 seconds) capable of causing deterioration of the sensorium and different test were performed seven days post-intoxication. Compared with control animals (C), rats exposed to CO showed changes in the i) footprint test expressed as cm (C: 6.5±0.9; CO: 9.1±0.7; P<0.05) and left overlap (C: 1.1±0.1; CO: 1.8±0.2; P<0.01), compatible with ataxia by exhibiting a greater maximum difference in the stride length; ii) open field test by exhibiting a greater exploratory activity and memory deficit (P<0.05); iii) elevated pluz maze test by manifesting a greater degree of anxiety (P<0.05); and iv) inhibitory advance test by displaying a lower latency to enter the dark compartment (P<0.01). In order to search for some prognostic biomarkers, we evaluated the genetic damage in different cells using the comet assay. Compared with C, CO-exposed rats exhibited a higher genetic damage, expressed as TailDNA%, in i) peripheral blood (PB, CO: 14±3; C: 5,1±0,6; p<0.05) and bone marrow (BM, CO: 31±3; C: 15±2; p<0.01) at 1 h post intoxication; and ii) BM (CO: 27±2; C 10±2; p<0.001) and brain (B, CO: 36±3, C: 27±3, p<0.05) at 7 days post-intoxication. These results suggest that the behavioral evaluation, gait and the detection of genotoxicity may inform early disorders prior to the development of the LNS.