ASSOCIATION OF BONE-MARROW CELL SENSITIVI TY WITH THE CLUSTOGENIC EFFECT OF THIO-TEPA AND FERTILITY IN SUCCESSIVE INBRED GENERATIONS OF CBALACY MICE/

The causes of the significant increases in the sensitivity to of clust ogenic effect of thio-TEPA in bone marrow cells of inbred CBA/LacY mic e were studied. The increases were shown to be associated with decreas ed fertility, The fluctuations of fertility and the association of fer tility and sensitivity with thio-TEPA were analyzed in foundation stoc ks (FSs) for 24 and 6 inbred generations, respectively. The stocks exa mined were obtained in the Laboratory of Experimental Biological Model s and the Stolbovaya breeding facility. The correlation analysis revea led a significant association of fluctuations of the coefficient of fe rtility in two FSs (eta = 0.78 +/- 0.13) and a high negative correlati on between fertility and mutagen sensitivity in inbred generations (r = -0.91 +/- 0.21). The comparison between the fluctuations of fertilit y for four generations revealed the same fluctuation period in CBA/Lac Y, DBA/2Y, and C57B1/6JY mice. The detected phenomena were assumed to result from genetically determined regular fluctuations in genome func tioning. This explained a number of observations and allowed several p rognoses to be made.