The Effect of Splenectomy on Hemoglobin levels in Rats
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: The spleen filters aged and damaged red blood cells and supports immune function; however, it is often regarded as a vestigial organ. Splenectomy (SPX) is associated with excellent outcomes in the near-term, yet long-term studies show patients are more susceptible to bacterial infections and have an increased risk for cardiovascular disease and mortality. While it is known that the spleen regulates red blood cell turn over, there are few studies that look at the short- and long-term impact on hemoglobin (Hb) levels. Objective: Understand how splenectomy affects red blood cell (RBC) hemoglobin levels over long term. Hypothesis: Splenectomy will lead to reduced hemoglobin levels over time. Methods: All animal procedures were approved by the University of Guelph ACC. 24 male and female Wistar rats received SPX, and 12 male and female rats received the sham surgery. Whole blood was collected before surgery and at 16 weeks post SPX or sham under isoflurane. To assess RBC levels, Hb concentration was measured using the Hemocue Hb 201+ (HemoCue AB, Sweden). Results: At 8 weeks of age before surgery, males had a ~10% higher Hb than females. Sham surgery was associated with a ~10% increase in Hb concentration between 8 and 16 weeks of age, where males were consistently ~6% higher than females at this time point. In contrast, no increase in Hb concentration was observed with splenectomy within the same time frame. Conclusions: Interestingly, SPX was associated with a blunting of age-related increases in Hb levels. Whether this is related to a change in RBC levels or a change in Hb within the RBC remains to be determined. Regardless, this work suggests that the spleen plays a critical role in mediating age-related changes in Hb homeostasis and further work is needed to establish to understand the role of the spleen on Hb and RBCs. NSERC and CIHR This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".