Secondary Disease in Rat Radiation Chimeras23

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Abstract
Rats were treated with homologous bone marrow following nearly lethal and lethal X irradiation. About 60 percent of the animals survived beyond the 4th week. In the rat-strain combination used, secondary disease developed during the 2d and 3d month in about 30 percent of the survivors, with emaciation and skin lesions as the principal symptoms. Surprisingly, colitis and diarrhea, prominent and consistent symptoms of secondary disease in the other species so far investigated, were never found, even in fatal secondary disease of the rat. There was no evidence of hemolytic anemia. The administration of homologous lymphoid cells provoked a faster, somewhat modified secondary syndrome with much higher mortality. In these rats, histologic lesions of the intestinal mucosa were found, but no colitis or diarrhea. Homologous bone marrow was also administered after median lethal radiation doses, which resulted in a temporarily functioning graft. A detrimental effect of such grafts, as described for certain mouse-strain combinations (“the MLD effect”), was not found.