Morphology of Peripheral Blood Smear in Mice Exposed to Red Congo Food Coloring
Ermina Widiyastuti, Meta Maulida Damayanti, Ismet M. Noor, Sara Puspita Wardhani

Faculty of Medicine, UNISBA

Abstract

Introduction
This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of an azo dye carmoisine-namely red congo fabric coloring, that widely used in industrial food manufacturing in Indonesia mostly, that might be seen as changes in peripheral blood smear morphology.
Method
Red congo coloring administered into a group of 28 mice orally treated with four different doses as control, low, medium, and high equivalent to 0, 190, 375, and 750 mg/kg of bw, respectively, for 59 days.
After 59 days of treatment, blood smear then made from mice tail and analyzed under light microscope.
Results
Of 28 mice, all mice showed no differences in lymphocytes count and morphology. All mice showed atypical hypersegmented lymphocytes. There were changes in red blood cells (RBCs) morphology in mice group treated with red congo coloring, with 10.7% showed anisopoikilocytosis with target cells, with 7% of those were in mice group treated with high dose of red congo food coloring. Around 85.7% of mice in both control and treatment groups showed normochromation in RBCs, 21.4% of mice in moderate to high dose treatment group showed polychromation.
Conclusion
In mice treatment groups, there were changes in RBCs morphology compared to control, without different changes seen in lymphocyte count and morphology compared to control.

Keywords: Red congo, azo dye, fabric coloring, blood smear, carmoisine

Topic: Toxicology and Teratogenic