Lethality of radioisotopes in early mouse embryos

The development of pre-implantation mouse embryos was found to be prevented by exposure of the embryos to [35S]methionine, but not to [3H]methionine. Such embryos have also been shown to be highly sensitive to [3H]thymidine. These observations are discussed with reference to the path lengths and energies of electrons emitted from the different radioisotopes.