Residual Haematopoietic Damage in Adult and 8 Day-old Mice Exposed to 7 Gy of X-rays

Abstract

Our experiments have focused on the analysis of residual haematopoietic damage in 8-day-old and 12-week-old mice X-irradiated with a single dose of 7 Gy. In the case of the adult mice, analysis of the femoral and splenic CFU-S, CFU-GM and BFU-E showed a persistent depletion of these haematopoietic progenitor cells after irradiation. In contrast, in 1-week-old irradiated mice, a progressive recovery of the femoral haematopoietic progenitors was observed, achieving essentially normal values 1 year after irradiation. The spleens of these mice, however, contained significantly less haematopoietic progenitors than the control group, mainly as a consequence of the size reduction of this organ. In the peripheral blood, normal cellularity values were observed in most cases, although in the adult group a decline in numbers or circulating cells was noted after the first year following irradiation. Long-term bone marrow cultures (LTBMCs) established 1 year after the irradiation of adult mice generated poor adherent layers, while confluent stromas were observed in flasks corresponding to 8-day-old irradiated mice. Analyses of the functional activity of granulocytes obtained from either the peripheral blood or LTBMCs revealed that both young and adult irradiated mice produced granulocytes generating high levels of superoxide anion, in relation to age-matched controls. This finding was correlated with a long-term microenvironmental activation which resulted in an overproduction of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor.