Selective Sterilization of Young Female Mice by Radioiodine Transmitted Through the Mother's Milk

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Abstract
Carrier-free radioiodine (NaI131; 300 [mu]c or 600 [mu]c) was injected subcut. into nursing mice on the 5th or 15th day post-partem. The suckling mice were weaned at 4 wks. and beginning at 2 mos. of age were tested for fertility. The test mice were known to be fertile. The ovaries of young newborn mice are more sensitive to radioiodine than the testes. Females whose mothers were injected with 600 [mu]c I131 when they were suckling were all sterile by 10 mos. while the untreated controls showed 86% fertility. Fertility of litter mate males was reduced to only 75%. The ovary of the 5-day-old mouse is more sensitive to radioiodine than the ovary of the 15-day-old mouse, each being irradiated through the mother''s milk. Sterility was not evident until the 4th mo.; the female life span was reduced.