Hypersensitivity of LEC strain rats in radiation-induced acute bone-marrow death.

LEC strain rats, which have been known to develop hereditarily spontaneous fulminant hepatitis 4 to 5 months after birth, were highly sensitive to whole-body X ray-irradiation as compared to WKAH strain rats. Radiation-induced acute bone-marrow death occurred at doses higher than 2.0 Gy in LEC rats, and at doses higher than 7.4 Gy in WKAH rats, respectively. By probit analysis of survival data, it was shown that the LD50/30 value for LEC rats was 3.0 Gy which was significantly lower than that (7.8 Gy) of WKAH rats. Histopathological examinations of the bone marrows from both strains after irradiation at a dose of 4.0 Gy revealed that a number of hemopoietic cells were recovered in WKAH rats on day 8 after irradiation, but not in LEC rats. These results suggested the hypersensitivity of LEC rats to ionizing radiation in connection with acute bone-marrow death.