Long-term effects of continuous low dose-rate gamma-ray irradiation on mouse hematopoietic cells

The present work investigates the long-term effects of continuous low dose-rate (20 mGy/day to total doses of 1-8 Gy) gamma-ray exposure on the hematopoietic cells of specific pathogen-free C3H/HeN mice. Peripheral white blood cell (WBC) counts decreased on days 206, 471, and 486, with no significant changes in red blood cell (RBC) and platelet (PLT) counts. The number of colony forming units (CFU-S and CFU-GM) in the bone marrow and spleen from irradiated mice decreased with increasing total dose on day-12 and day-7. The decrease in bone marrow CFU-S persisted throughout the 400-day irradiation period and did not show any recovery up to 210 days postirradiation. These findings suggest that the effects of low-dose-rate (LDR) radiation on the hematopoietic system remain long after the 400-day irradiation was completed. Further investigation showed no significant difference in life spans of non-irradiated W/Wv (c-kit-deficient) mice inoculated with hematopoietic stem cells from irradiated (20 mGy/day for 400 days) or nonirradiated wild-type mice. These results suggest that the effects of continuous low-dose-rate irradiation are more pronounced in hematopoietic stromal cells than in HSCs themselves.