Dr. Thannoo et F. Paquet, EARLY ULTRASTRUCTURAL ALTERATIONS IN RATS AFTER ADMINISTRATION OF PU-239-CITRATE, Cellular and molecular biology, 42(3), 1996, pp. 431-438
Three series of ultrastructural studies are carried out with adult mal
e Sprague Dawley rats injected with 239plutonium citrate. Two groups o
f rats are used in the first series of experiments. The animals of the
first group are injected with 5 x 2,3 KBq while the animals of the se
cond group received 5 x 9.25 KBq. The animals of the second series of
experiment are injected with a single dose of 1 KBq while the animals
of the third series received 5 x 200 Bq. Seven days after the first in
jections, animals kidneys of the first series of experiments have seri
ous mitochondrial alterations in the proximal convoluted tubular and g
lomerular cells. Bone marrow cells have the same type of mitochondrial
alterations as the above kidney cells. The affected mitochondria are
swollen and have their cristae partially or completely destroyed. Very
slight subcellular alterations are noted in the livers. The same type
of alterations are observed in the kidney and bone marrow samples of
the animals two days after injection of 1 KBq, but 23 days later no mo
re ultrastructural alteration are noticed. No subcellular alterations
are observed in the animals of the third series. These observations su
ggest that the chemical origin of these cellular lesions has to be tak
en into consideration even if the mass of injected radionuclide is low
(2.04-81.6 mg/kg).