Metabolic changes after non-lethal x-irradiation of rats. II. Serum and tissue lipids

Male rats of the Wistar strain were subjected to whole-body X-irradiation with 2.39 Gy (250 R) and after irradiation they were pair-fed with the sham-irradiated control group. One, 6 and 24 h, 2, 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, and 38 days after exposure the animals were sacrificed and examined for serum and some tissue lipids. In the first hours an increase in lipolysis in the white adipose tissue and accumulation of NEFA and TG in the liver predominated; PL level increased in serum and liver and decreased in bone marrow and thymus. The later phase was characterized by hypertriacylglycerolaemia and a transient hypercholesterolaemia; accumulation of TG in bone marrow was the most important change, however. Changes in the lipid composition of the serum and tissues, except for an increase in TG level in thymus, returned to normal levels at the end of the observation period. Pair-feeding provided an equivalent nutritional situation in irradiated and sham-irradiated animals and thus eliminated the non-specific changes caused by different levels of food intake in both groups of animals, especially in the initial period. A sufficiently long observation period is necessary for estimating the kinetics of metabolic changes in rats exposed to non-lethal doses of X-irradiation.