Response of digestive organs of Hypsiboas albopunctatus (Anura: Hylidae) to benzo[α]pyrene

Here, we tested the dose dependent and short- and long-term effects of benzo[alpha]pyrene (BAP) on the thickness of small intestine and liver melanomacrophages (MMC) of <i>Hypsiboas albopunctatus</i>. We conducted an experiment with a fully-crossed 3x2 factorial design to answer these two questions. Male specimens were separated into groups injected with a subcutaneous solution containing either 3 or 7 mg/Kg of BAP. Specimens were killed either 72h or 168h after the first injection with BAP. Then, we measured the the thickness of small intestine and the area occupied by MMCs in the liver. Experimental groups had 6 animals each. Our sampling units were pictures of histological sections (25 per animal). For the intestinal epithelium we only analyzed 5 out of the 6 animals.