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The Humoral Immune Response in Mice after Neutron or X-Irradiation at Different Dose Rates¹

From the Medical Division, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830

Abstract

Acute radiation dose rate and radiation quality are two critical, although little studied, variables involved in nonspecific radiation immunosuppression. Mice (C3BF₁) were injected with sheep erythrocytes shortly after irradiation, and the humoral immune response measured over a 35-day period. With neutron irradiation, antibody formation was dependent only on the total dose, and not the dose rate. In contrast, the immune response after x-irradiation was dependent on both the dose and dose rate. Maximum dose-rate differences occurred with 500 rads of x-rays. Maximum depression with both neutron and x-irradiation occurred when antigen was given 12 hr after exposure. The exposure-rate effect on immunocompetent cells was directly demonstrated at the cellular level by culturing irradiated spleen cells in lethally irradiated recipients.

Footnotes

¹ This investigation was supported by the Medical Division, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, under contract with the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and by Training Grant T2 Gm 730 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

² Submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree Doctor of Philosophy, Institute of Radiation Biology, the University of Tennessee.