Radiation-Induced Changes in the Fine Structure of the Heart: Comparison of Fission Neutrons and 60 Co g Rays in the Mouse

Abstract

The ultrastructural changes in mouse cardiac muscle and cardiac vasculature from 4 days to 1 yr after irradiation are described. Radiation treatment consisted of single-dose, total-body exposures to 240 rad fission neutrons or 788 rad /sup 60/Co ..gamma.. rays. Cardiac muscle showed areas of focal myofibrillolysis, myofibrillar degeneration with loss of entire myofibrils, presence of lipid bodies and of lysosomal-like bodies, and partially vacuolated mitochondria in some myocytes. There was apparently no Z-band thickening or disruption. Intercalated disks were sometimes dissociated and interstitial fibrosis was occasionally seen surrounding myocytes. The cardiac microvasculature showed progressive degenerative lesions, including swollen endothelial cells, cytoplasmic blebs and extensions, myelinlike figures, vacuolated mitochondria, and thrombi that adhered to irregularities of the endothelial surface. After both forms of irradiation, smooth muscle degeneration and fibrosis in coronary arteries first appeared at 3 months and became progressively more severe at 6 and 12 months. Quantitiative estimations of myofibrillar and capillary degeneration revealed that damage was most severe at 1--3 months in both neutron- and gamma-irradiated groups. At 12 months, significant capillary degeneration was still present, but the condition of the myofibrils was comparable to that in controls. Quantitative differences between neutron- and gamma-irradiated groups were not statistically significant.