EFFECTS OF RADIATION ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM

Informazioni relative al progetto

ID dell’accordo di sovvenzione: BI7*0003

Progetto chiuso

Data di avvio 1 Agosto 1990

Data di completamento 31 Luglio 1992

Finanziato da

• Specific multiannual research and training programme (Euratom) in the field of radiation protection, 1990-1991

Costo totale

Nessun dato

Contributo UE

Nessun dato

Coordinato da

BELGIAN NUCLEAR RESEARCH CENTRE
Belgium

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Risultati sfruttabili

The effects of radiation exposure during fetal development

Research was carried out into the evaluation of the deleterious effects of exposure to a low dose of ionizing radiation during fetal development. The study involved monitoring of the acute effects of an exposure to 600 KeV neutrons on day 15 postconception (PC) in the Wistar rat and evaluation of the protracted effects of a low dose rate of gamma exposure during whole or part of the pregnancy. With respect to exposure to 600 KeV neutrons on day 15 postconception, brain weights of prenatally irradiated rats decreased linearly according to dose in 3, 15 and 24 month old rats. The slight microcephaly (a 2% brain weight loss) found after an exposure to only 1 cGy was found to be significant. Evaluation of the protracted effects of a gamma exposure (at a low dose rate) during whole or part of the pregnancy involved a large amount of superposition between the numerous dose effect curves but some interesting conclusions can be drawn. If, in general, protracted exposures produce less effects than acute ones, it also appears that a careful selection of the period of irradiation during the pregnancy (eg by irradiating from day 12 to day 16 PC) produces a brain atrophy at least similar to the one produced by an acute exposure to the same dose given in 20 s during day 15 PC. Brain atrophy may not always represent the best available estimator of the effects of a prenatal irradiation of the brain. The decrease of the volume of the cingulum (a pure white matter area located above the corpus callosum) in relation to the dose can be much more important than the loss in brain weight with the same dose. Here also, an exposure of a few seconds to X-rays does not cause more effect than a 5h gamma irradiation. The reasons for the very high radiosensitivity of the cingulum are unclear. A reduction of a neuronal population (calbindin positive) was found to selectively occur in the cingular cortex, an area of the cerebral cortex located just above the cingulum.