[Various physiological characteristics of primary radiation reaction and its apomorphine model]

Experiments were performed on 52 dogs exposed to irradiation at a dose of 5-80 Gy or injected with 0.02-0.5 mg/kg apomorphine. The apomorphine effect was also studied in 18 healthy male volunteers. Apomorphine injected to dogs reproduced to a certain extent the pattern and sequence of gastrointestinal, sensorimotor and circulatory lesions constituting the primary radiation reaction. The apomorphilne dosage ED50-ED90, in terms of vomiting, roughly corresponded to irradiation at a dose of 5-10 Gy. The basic difference was that the time of onset and duration of specific symptoms after irradiation were several times longer than after apomorphine injection. It is suggested that the common pathogenetic component in the primary reaction to irradiation and its apomorphine model is the phasic change in the activities of brain dopaminergic systems.