Delayed Mortality after Mid-lethal Exposures to Whole-body Irradiation and Its Modification by Treatment with Syngeneic Lymph-node or Bone-marrow Cells

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Abstract
Deaths between 25 and 275 days after mid-lethal x-irradiation were closely reminiscent of the ‘secondary disease’ of supralethally irradiated mice given allogeneic or xenogeneic cells. One-third of the mice with the diarrhoea syndrome died of it; the majority recovered spontaneously. The delayed mortality was prevented and diarrhoea minimized by treatment with 107 syngeneic lymph-node cells either soon after irradiation or 22 days later. Thus death from lymphoid insufficiency is a specific consequence of whole-body irradiation by mid-lethal doses. Radiation-induced somatic mutation in surviving cells may play a part. Early treatment with 5 × 106 syngeneic bone-marrow cells was also effective. Bone marrow at 22 days had less effect on diarrhoea and did not decrease mortality but changed the post-mortem findings, death occurring characteristically with markedly congested lungs and with amyloid deposits in spleen and liver. Body weight was increased but not restored to normal by treatment with either kind of cell at either time. Survivors after 1100 rads plus bone marrow all died at about 6 months with dyspnoea, pleural effusion and an enlarged heart. This specific radiation-induced syndrome killed at later times after lower radiation doses and overall its incidence was markedly dose dependent. 107 syngeneic lymph node cells did not modify its frequency or time of occurrence.

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