Treatment of Total-Body X-Irradiated Monkeys With Autologous and Homologous Bone Marrow2

Abstract

Rhesus monkeys were given injections of autologous or homologous bone marrow after total-body X irradiation. After doses of 650 r or more, untreated monkeys survived for 12 to 16 days without recovery of the peripheral blood counts. Five of 6 animals treated with 2.2 to 12.9 × 10⁸ autologous bone marrow cells after radiation doses of 850 to 950 r showed hematopoietic recovery and survived for over 100 days. After lethal radiation doses and treatment with more than 8 × 10⁸ homologous bone marrow cells, recovery of hematopoiesis was observed in 14 monkeys. In most of these male animals the proliferation of female donor cells was demonstrated by the presence of typical “drumsticks” in the polymorphonuclear granulocytes of the peripheral blood. However, only 2 animals survived more than 30 days, and the average survival time, 21.6 days, was only slightly longer than that of the controls. A syndrome of anorexia, diarrhea, and wasting, often combined with dermatitis or jaundice, occurred only in the animals treated with foreign bone marrow. From the similarity of this syndrome and the autopsy findings (described in the following paper) to those of secondary disease in rodents, it is concluded that the monkeys which, after irradiation, were treated with homologous bone marrow died from severe and early development of secondary disease. The implications of these findings are discussed.