Microspectrophotometric Study of Histoenzymic Reactions in Rat Epidermis Subjected to 0·5 Mrads of Deuteron Radiation

Summary

The epidermis of new-born rats was irradiated with a deuteron beam of 26·5 MeV. 500 krads were delivered to 4 mm diameter circular areas in the infraorbicular left side of the heads.

Quantitative histochemical determinations of NADP diaphorase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, lactic and succinic dehydrogenase were performed, using a microspectrophotometric scanning technique, from 2 to 48 hours after irradiation.

There was no clear change with LDh and SDh. A clear increment was detected in both total content and mean concentration of NADP Diaph. and Gl-6-phDh. No evidence of a real enzyme decrease shortly after irradiation could be detected by our techniques. This could imply that no significant direct radiation effects occur to the enzyme molecules in vivo.