skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Assessment of the behavioral toxicity of high-energy iron particles compared to other qualities of radiation

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:7164853

Conditioned taste aversion was used to evaluate the behavioral toxicity of exposure to high-energy iron particles (56Fe, 600 MeV/amu) in comparison to that of gamma photons (60 Co), high-energy electrons, or fission neutrons. Exposure to high-energy iron particles (5-500 cGy) produced a dose-dependent taste aversion with a maximal effect achieved with a dose of 30 cGy. Gamma photons and electrons were the least-effective stimuli for producing a conditioned taste aversion, with a maximal aversion obtained only after exposure to 500 cGy, while the effectiveness of fission neutrons was intermediate to that of photons and iron particles, and a maximal aversion was obtained with a dose of 100 CGy. In the second experiment, rats with lesions of the area postrema were exposed to iron particles (3- cGY), but failed to acquire a taste aversion. The results indicate that (1) high-energy iron particles are more toxic than other qualities of radiation and (2) similar mechanisms mediate the behavioral toxicity of gamma photons and high-energy iron particles.

Research Organization:
Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Inst., Bethesda, MD (USA)
OSTI ID:
7164853
Report Number(s):
AD-A-214329/5/XAB; AFRRI-SR-89-35
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Pub. in Radiation Research, Vol. 119, 113-122(1989)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English