The Effect of Very Large Doses of Radiation on the Thymus Cortex

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Abstract
In the thymus cortex of young rats acutely exposed to 13 kr or more of x-radiation, (1) autolytic breakdown of the radiation-killed lymphocytes was considerably delayed, and (2) the reticulum cells died after three to four days. The same occurred when organ cultures of normal thymus were irradiated in vitro, and the delayed autolysis was equally evident when thymus-lymphocyte suspensions were irradiated. No such phenomena were seen in the thymus medulla or in lymph nodes, in vivo or in vitro. In thymus cultures, the autolysis of cortical lymphocytes killed by chemical poisoning was not delayed by pre-exposure to 40 kr. It was concluded that very large doses of radiation act directly on these cells, inhibiting some pre-autolytic event in the process of post-irradiation cytolysis, and that this event is specific both for radiation and for thymus cortical lymphocytes.