Late Somatic Effects in Syngeneic Radiation Chimaeras

Abstract

Short- and long-term pathological and epidemiological observations were conducted on a group of control hybrid mice and several groups of animals irradiated with 900 rads and injected with various doses of normal isogeneic bone-marrow stem-cells. Bone-marrow transplantation was effective in enhancing the short-term survival of the treated animals. By comparison with the controls, the long-term survivors showed a shortened life-span, an increased incidence of degenerative and malignant neoplastic diseases and a reduced incidence of reticulum cell sarcoma. The quantitative analysis of the data in terms of age-specific death-rate from all causes and/or with specific diseases provides a description of the basic features of a model of late radiation action, which allows the control of cellular variables and may be of potential interest in studies on radiation carcinogenesis and leukaemogenesis.