The Effect of Radioprotective Compounds on the Incorporation of Tritiated Thymidine into Mammalian Cells

Summary

The effect of radioprotective compounds on the rate of DNA-synthesis in bone-marrow and intestinal epithelium of Swiss albino mice has been investigated, using tritiated thymidine and an autoradiographic technique. A significant depression in the grain count and fraction of labelled cells is found to occur for myeloctyes from mice injected with good radioprotectors of the sulphydryl group. The magnitude of the effects observed is to some degree correlated with the protective ability of the compound: no similar effect was seen for intestinal epithelium although the presence of the radioprotector in these cells was checked using S-labelled AET.

No effect on grain count and fraction of labelled cells was found in mice in which cellular anoxia was produced by keeping the mice in an atmosphere of more low oxygen-content.