Lymphocyte lifetime in the rabbit measured by the decline in radiation-induced chromosome damage.

The life span of rabbit lymphocytes carrying radiation-induced chromosome aberrations has been studied by following the decline in aberration frequency as a function of the time after irradiation. Female rabbits were given a whole body X-ray dose of 300 rad. The day before exposure and at 2 hours, 14, 28, 42, 56, 84, 140, 250 and 500 days thereafter, blood samples were taken from a marginal ear vein of each animal. A plot of log abnormalities against time suggests an exponential decline for dicentrics and fragments up to 140 days, the half time for dicentrics and fragments being 70 and 46 days respectively. The results of the present investigation thus demonstrate that because of their shorter life span, in vivo observations on aberrations in rabbit lymphocytes are not suitable for extrapolation of information on chronic exposure to man.