Chapter 14 



ELECTROPHORESIS OF THE PLASMA OF RABBITS 

 IRRADIATED WITH NEUTRONS 



By EDWARD B. SANIGAR, GAIL L. MILLER, axd MARY NORTON MADDOX 



To obtain information concerning the mechanism of the action of neutron 

 irradiation on living animals a study has been made, by means of the mov- 

 ing boundary electrophoretic method (1), of the changes in blood plasma 

 composition during and after neutron in-adiation of rabbits. Rabbits were 

 chosen for the investigation so that sufficient blood could be ^nthdrawn 

 for each experiment without sacrificing or seriously harming the test 

 animals. 



Further, it appeared desirable to relate some relatively simple biological 

 response, which could be observed along with the electrophoretic study of 

 the plasma, to the size of the irradiation dose. A suitable response was the 

 well-established decrease in white blood cell count which results from neu- 

 tron irradiation (2, 3). Thus the relationships between amount of irradi- 

 ation, plasma protein composition and white blood cell count weie studied 

 with, two types of treatment, namely, various irradiation doses given over 

 short periods of time and large amounts administered in small doses over 

 long periods. ^ 



Changes in body weight and the development of outstanding physical 

 abnormalities by the animals were also noted during the work. Autopsies 

 were performed at the termination of certain of the experiments to ascertain 

 whether any gross body changes had resulted from irradiation. 



To determine whether neutron irradiation had a direct effect on the 

 electrophoretic composition of rabbit plasma, aliquots of a sample of plasma 

 from one rabbit were exposed m vitro to various large neutron doses and 

 then tested for possible changes in electrophoretic pattern. 



MATERIALS AND METHODS 



Animals. Male, white New Zealand rabbits, 4| months old and weigh- 

 ing approximately 6 pounds, were used. They were kept in galvanized 

 "wire cages and maintained on a diet of Purina Rabbit Chow and water. 



Irradiation. The production of the neutrons and the method of irradi- 

 ation have already been described by Enns ct al. (4). The daily irradiation 

 of 55 n given one series of rabbits in cage 4, was administered continuously 

 in a single dose over a period of about 3^ hours. Daily irradiation of 5 or 

 10 n given other groups in cage 5, was intermittent, the total per day being 

 administered over periods of 1-2 hours. 



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