Effect of X-Irradiation on Cellular Inclusions in Chicken Embryo Livers

Abstract

Volumes of mitochondria, microsomes, and nuclei were measured by differential centrifugation in liver cells of irradiated 13-, 18-, and 21-day-old chicken embryos and 4-day-old chicks. When an exposure of 465 rads of X-irradiation were administered 3 days prior to sacrifice, liver cell mitochondria were decreased in numbers in 13-and 18-day-old embryos. These decreases, however, were not observed immediately or within 24 hours after irradiation, suggesting that the mitochondria per se are relatively radioresistant but that their multiplication or maintenance during the rapid division of the liver cells is somehow interfered with. The decreases were correlated with a surfeit of triglyceride in the plasmas of irradiated embryos of these stages.