Cataract Development after Embryonic and Fetal X-Irradiation

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Abstract
GF1 Swiss white mice were X-rayed at various stages of development from fertilization through gestation day 18, at 10 r and 100 r, and were examined for the onset of cataract development every 3 months during their post-natal life. The most sensitive period for cataract formation occurred at fertilization, prior to the first cleavage. Some 70% of the males and 84% of the females irradiated prior to the first cleavage developed cataracts by 12 months of age while the respective controls developed only 5% and 13% cataracts. At 18 months of age surviving mice showed an even greater incidence of cataract formation, with at least 97% cataract formation in mice X-rayed prior to the first cleavage (right after fertilization). Males showed 10 gestation ages when cataract incidence was statistically significant while the females showed only 3. Nevertheless, there was an over-all rise in cataractogenesis among all experimental animals far above the controls (13% among the males and 17% among the females at 18 months). If there is a "critical period" for cataract formation it occurs long before the embryonic development of the lens epithelium. Cataract formation may be evidence of over-all debility, since many of those animals irradiated shortly after fertilization did not survive.