Acute Radio-sensitivity as a Function of Age in Mice

To understand the ‘ageing’ effects of the irreparable component of radiation injury, it is essential to accumulate much base-line data on natural chronological ageing. Earlier work1 was designed to determine radiation sensitivity at different ages, using the fractionated dose method, which allows for biological repair between acute exposures. With this type of exposure, which is primarily a measure of repair from bone marrow injury, radio-resistance remains relatively stable through the first half of adult life and then deteriorates quite rapidly to the end of normal life expectancy1. The work described here was designed to investigate variations in sensitivity to single acute X-ray exposures in various age-groups of mice.