Radiosensitivity of vertebral bone marrow CFU-S surviving in mice internally contaminated with 239Pu or 241Am

The radiosensitivity of pluripotent hemopoietic stem cells was studied in ICR "Swiss" mice (28 g/mouse) given i.v. 198.6 kBq 239Pu/kg as citrate complex or 208.6 kBq 241 Am/kg as nitrate at the age of 10 weeks. The bone marrow cells were examined at the early and late phases of radionuclide contamination. To obtain data for survival curves and D0 of stem cells the CFU-S assay was used and the donor vertebral marrow cells were exposed to the complementary X-irradiation either early after injection to the heavily irradiated recipients or to the "in vitro" irradiation given before the transplantation. To determine the iron uptake in splenic erythroid progeny the recipients given marrow cells unexposed to the X-rays received 37 kBq 59Fe 6 h before they were killed and the relative activity per colony was calculated. The radiation effect of the used actinides on the bone marrow cells resulted in decreased cellularity and seriously altered both relative and absolute CFU-S numbers. The radiosensitivity of CFU-S increased in all intervals examined (D0 from 0.60 to 0.86 Gy, in controls 0.97 to 1.06 Gy) and was more expressed when the CFU-S were exposed to the X-rays immediately after the bone marrow cell transplantation to the heavily irradiated hosts. The stem cell pool appeared, especially at older age, to be affected also in its ability to produce erythrocytic progeny.