Animal Hematotoxicology: A Practical Guide for Toxicologists and Biomedical Researchers [ Active ]

Preface

This book is designed to help new entrants to the fields of laboratory animal hematology and toxicology, where the challenges are stimulating and the "rules" for human hematology do not always apply. There are many good general textbooks on human hematology and toxicology, with each organization having its favorites: this book is aimed to bridge the gap between these two mainstream sciences.

Chapters are written to cover the three main blood cell types—erythrocytes, leukocytes, and thrombocytes—and potential toxic effects on these cells. A chapter on immunotoxicology has been included as this scientific discipline is closely aligned to hematology. Other chapters are devoted to preanalytical and analytical variables that affect animal studies, as these play a far more important part when interpreting data in contrast to humans, where many of these variables can be well controlled or have less physiological effect. Information has been collated from published papers, textbooks, and unpublished data: references are provided at the end of each chapter or in appendix A, where readers are provided with some key references on published reference ranges for laboratory animals.

Biological organisms cannot be understood solely by reducing them to their component parts and numbers, and toxicological science requires people with the knowledge and experience to interpret and place the hematological findings obtained from a study into an overall picture of toxicity. Hematology data from in vivo toxicology studies remains one of, if not the most predictive, disciplines for human risk assessment, as the same measurements made in preclinical toxicology studies can be made in early clinical trials. About 10 years ago, an experienced toxicologist described hematology as the Cinderella of toxicology. Hopefully, this book will encourage you to help Cinderella go to the ball and find her rightful place.