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Title: Prenatal survival of mice irradiated with fission neutrons or 300-kVp x rays during the pronuclear-zygote stage: survival curves, effect of dose fractionation

Journal Article · · Int. J. Radiat. Biol., v. 24, no. 6, pp. 549-560

Mouse embryos were irradiated or sham-irradiated in utero during the pronuclear-zygote stage and examined 16 days later. A simple exponential equation is suggested to approximate the relation between surviving fraction of embryos and absorbed dose up to the highest dose used (20 rads of neutrons, 100 rads of x rays). It is suggested that in the dose-range studied, pronuclear- zygote inactivation was predominantiy a single-event process (i.e., embryo death resulted from passage of one ionizing particle) with either radiation, and that the relative biological effectiveness of the neutrons (approximately 4.5) was close to the low-dose limiting value. D/sub o/ was 19 rads for neutrons and 87 rads for x rays. With increasing radiation dose, not only did prenatal mortality increase, but the embryos also died earlier in development. Dose-fractionation experiments suggest that irradiation of the early pronuclear-zygote impeded its progression to a less radiosensitive phase. (auth)

Research Organization:
Federal Aviation Administration, Oklahoma City, OK
NSA Number:
NSA-29-018624
OSTI ID:
4367737
Journal Information:
Int. J. Radiat. Biol., v. 24, no. 6, pp. 549-560, Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 30-JUN-74; Bib. Info. Source: UK (United Kingdom (sent to DOE from))
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English