Comparative investigations on blood adrenocorticotropic hormone and cortisol changes after total body gamma irradiation of rabbits and pigs at 0.1 and 0.5 Gy
2010
Kecheva, R., Thracian University, Stara Zagora (Bulgaria)
Ionizing radiation and the pathways of its deleterious effects on living beings are still of interest for investigators. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the dose-dependent alterations in blood plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone and cortisol in two animal species with different radiosensitivity after total body gamma irradiation within the dose range 0.1–0.5 Gy. The experiments were carried out with 10 male 3-month-old White New Zealand rabbits and 10 male pigs - Big White×Landrace crosses at the age of 45 days. All animals were submitted to external gamma irradiation at doses of 0.1 Gy or 0.5 Gy. The results for blood hormonal assays showed that the total body gamma irradiation of both species at doses of either 0.1 or 05. Gy altered the activity of pituitary and adrenal glands. Pituitary changes were mainly functional and transient, whereas the higher exposure dose resulted in mainly structural changes in adrenal glands manifested by insufficiency of cortisol-secreting cells. It could be affirmed that the radiosensitivity of pituitary and adrenal secretory cells was different as could be seen from ACTH and cortisol secretion after irradiation of two species at two different doses of gamma radiation.
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