Factors affecting the placental transfer of actinides

The primary goal of this paper is to consider factors that affect the availability and transport of actinides from maternal blood, through the placenta, to the conceptus. These factors, of particular importance in scaling results from animals to man, include the route and temporal pattern of administration, the mass and physicochemical state of material administered, metabolism of the pregnant animal and fetal organs or tissue, and species-specific changes in placental structure relative to stage of gestation at exposure. Preliminary concepts for descriptive and kinetic models are proposed to integrate these results, to identify additional information required for developing more comprehensive models, and to provide a basis for scaling to human pregnancies for purposes of radiation dosimetry.