Late effects from particulate radiations in primate and rabbit tissues

Abstract Optic tissues in groups of New Zealand white rabbits were irradiated locally at different stages throughout the median life span of the species with a single dose (9 Gy) of 425 MeV/amu Ne ions (LET ∞ ∼30 keV/μm) and then inspected routinely for the progression of radiation cataracts. The level of early cataracts was found to be highest in the youngest group of animals irradiated (8 weeks old) but both the onset of late cataracts and loss of vision occurred earlier when animals were irradiated during the second half of the median life span. This age response can have serious implications in terms of space radiation hazards to man. Rhesus monkeys that had been subjected to whole-body skin irradiation (2.8 and 5.6 Gy) by 32 MeV protons (range in tissue ∼ 1 cm) some twenty years previously were analysed for radiation damage by the propagation of skin fibroblasts in primary cultures. Such propagation from skin biopsies in MEM-α medium (serial cultivation) or in supplemented Ham's F-10 medium (cultivation without dilution) revealed late damage in the stem (precursor) cells of the skins of the animals. The proton fluxes employed in this experiment are representative of those occurring in major solar flares.