Effects of ionizing radiation on oocytes of prepubertally irradiated rats
I Martínez-Flores1, C Saez, J Egozcue
1Departament de Biologia Cellular, Fisiologia i Immunologia, Unitat de Biologia, Facultat de Medicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.
Purpose:
To characterize the effects of ionizing radiation on the immature oocytes of prepubertal rats aged 16-20 days old.
Materials And Methods:
The abdomen of Sprague Dawley (SD) female rats was exposed to 0, 1 and 2 Gy of X-rays. The effects were analysed when the animals became adults (80 days old) using as parameters the number of implantation sites, embryonic loss, dominant lethality and the synaptonemal complex (SC) analysis of F1 female foetuses.
Results:
A statistically significant decrease in the fertility of the 2 Gy irradiated rats was observed. However, the SC analysis of F1 female foetuses showed no cytogenetic damage that could be attributed to radiation.
Conclusions:
A reproductive effect was demonstrated but no inherited genetic damage was detected by SC analysis in female foetuses of irradiated mothers.
