WHOLE-BODY IRRADIATION DOES NOT AFFECT INDUCTION OF NEW BONE-DEVELOPMENT

The effect of whole body irradiation given either beforehand to the do nor or after implantation to the recipient rats on the inductive capac ity of decalcified bone grafts was studied. In examining the effect of advance whole body irradiation of the donor animal, the grafts were h arvested five days after the irradiation, non-irradiated rats serving as control donors. Error! Reference source not found.-irradiation with doses of 800, 950 or 1100 rad was used. The grafts, implanted either alone or in composite form in the muscle pouches of non-irradiated rat s of an inbred strain, were removed four weeks after implantation and examined by measuring Ca-45 uptake, ash weight and area of radio-opaci ty in roentgenographs. There were no differences in bone-inductive cap acity between the grafts obtained after total body irradiation and the control grafts. In the other part of the study, decalcified bone graf ts were implanted in the abdominal muscle pouches of the recipient rat s, which were exposed to Error! Reference source not found.-radiation of 800 rad on either the second, 10th or 21st day after implantation. Four weeks after implantation the grafts were removed and examined. No differences in new bone formation were found between the groups subje cted to irradiation at different times or between these and the non-ir radiated controls. It is concluded that donor whole body irradiation o f 800-1100 rad in rat has no significant effect on the properties of n ew bone developed in allogeneic decalcified bone grafts, neither does recipient 800 rad irradiation administered after implantation affect t he bone induction activity.