Rabia Tasdemir & Tuncay Colak

Formaldehyde (FA), which is an indispensable chemical substance in anatomy and pathology, is a very harmful substance for living things. In our study, the purpose was to investigate the changes in behavior of rats exposed to subchronic formaldehyde with open field test. We divided 24 Wistar-Albino rats into 3 groups. The first group (n=8) was identified as the control group, and normal air breathing was ensured. Low-dose FA (mean 1 ppm) was inhaled in the second group, and high-dose FA (mean 10 ppm) was inhaled in the third group. FA exposure was done for 4 hours, 12 weeks, and 5 days a week. The rats were subjected to open field test during the first week and the last week of FA exposure. We observed significant decreases in the number of vertical movements and grooming in rats in the experimental group compared to the control group in the open field test (p < 0.05). We did not detect any significant differences in horizontal movements and defecation counts (p > 0.05). As a conclusion, we can argue that FA causes changes in the behaviors of rats regardless of dose and duration.

KEY WORDS: Formaldehyde exposure; Open field test; Rat.

TASDEMIR, R. & COLAK, T. Evaluation of subchronic formaldehyde exposure in rats with open field test. Int. J. Morphol., 39(6):1758-1762, 2021.