GENERAL DISCUSSION 339 



bacq: v. Ts there a series of ])rimary chemical injuries which is correctly 

 regarded as damage to the str-uctiires (membranes, intracellular 

 structures) and is the destruction of the intracellular auto-regulation as 

 a consequence of the action of an ionizing radiation? 



shabadash: By investigating, over the course of many years, the 

 consequences of radiation effects at the cellular level and on the 

 organism as a whole, we have succeeded — by means of histochemical 

 tests — in demonstrating the following. Cytological variations occur in 

 all the cells (both sensitive and resistant) and in addition the non- 

 identical finite result of the reactions depends not only upon the 

 constitutional properties of the type of cells, but also upon the intra- 

 cellular regulating influences if the matter concerns the systems of 

 the organism. A sensitive indicator of the cellular variations is the 

 destruction of the physico-chemical properties of the nucleoproteins of 

 the mitochondria, which reflect the breakdown of the metabolic 

 nuclear-cytoplasmic interaction. The phenomenon of multiplication and 

 amplification of the primary ionization effect, which arises even at the 

 cellular level undergoes a modification, and is reproduced in a complex 

 organism through its nervous system. It is known that sensitivity 

 to radiation damage increases in the evolutionary series ; from our point 

 of view this phenomenon is governed by the development and perfection 

 of the nervous system in all the variety of its effects. 



Our experiments with irradiation were undertaken on male rats, 

 using a dose of 50 to 100 r and a dose-rate of 150 to 192 r/min. 

 The criterion of the reaction of the nerve cells was the displacement 

 of the iso-electric point (lEP) of the ribonucleoproteins (RNP) which 

 testifies to the destruction of the normal interrelationships of the 

 enzymes and substrates and which is accompanied by a considerable 

 decrease of the normal thresholds of irritability. The animals were 

 fixed totally by an injection through the vascular system after 1-5, 10, 

 20, 30, 45 and 60 min; and then, after 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 24 hr, and 

 every 24hr (for 10 days). The greatest alterations were discovered in 

 the ganglion cells of the spinal cord, the displacement of the lEP in 

 the mitochondria of which, even in the first minute after irradiation, 

 reaches (according to the logarithmic scale for pH) 0-9 to 1-0 units, i.e. 

 is of the order of 25 times the absolute variation ; the displacement 

 increases after 5 and 10 min (to 1-2 to 1-4 units) and, beginning from 

 20 right up to 60 min, is somewhat reduced, but it is very far from 

 returning to the original value ; after 24 hr (and then for all the first 

 week) there is observed a wave-shaped shift of the oscillations of the 

 lEP values. Analogous although quantitatively somewhat different, 



