Abstract The damaging effects of lead poisoning effects to various organs of the body have been severally reported; as well as the health complications they produce. There are however relatively few reports on the nature of such effects on body tissues- histology, most publications have rather addressed the resulting complications. The proper understanding of the nature of the effects of lead poisoning on body tissues could help in understating the cause of the complications and may provide insights into better ways of managing lead poisoning effects. This research investigated the effects of lead poisoning on vital body tissues histology. Twelve Wistar rats were distributed into two groups: Group A being the control and Group B was administered 50mg/kg body weight of lead-in-water for a period of 28 days that the experiment lasted. The tissues were excised, fixed in formal saline and processed using the routine Haematoxylin and Eosin staining technique. Photomicrographs were obtained and analysed critically using qualitative histological principles. Lead produced observable deleterious effects on all tissues tested, the extent however varies greatly: from its extensively disruptive effects on the brain tissues. Brain cerebral and cerebellar cortices show neuronal damage and morphological disruption. Cardiac muscle also showed signs of damage. Skeletal muscle simply had slight myocytes and fibre distortions. Lead poisoning effects was observed in all the tissues.
Keywords Lead Poisoning, Tissues Histology, Wistar rat.