The Relationship of Strain, Sex, and Body Weight to Survival Following Sublethal Whole-Body X-Irradiation

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Life-shortening effects of whole-body X-Irradiation of C3H,BALB/c, RFM, C57BL/6, C3CF1, B6RFMF1 and a 4-way cross were compared. Male and female mice exposed to 300 R at 5-6 wk of age showed significant life shortening in all strains and crosses. Females were, in general, 1.5 times more sensitive than males of the same strain, suggesting a constant effect of sex. There were substantial differences in sensitivity within the same sex among strains, and this strain-specific difference was highly correlated with body wt at 6 wk of age. On this basis a hypothesis has been advanced which views some of the strain-specific differences in radiation sensitivity as due to differences in maturational rate or to processes which are highly correlated with maturational rate.