96 RATE OF REPAIR OF RADIATION DAMAGE IN MICE THE SHORTER-TERM BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS OF A FALLOUT FIELD 100, t ‘ T t half-times for repair of the fast component were T 140 T T Py rery T T TET TTT T T wT Trey 97 T remy ere 1.2, 2.0, and 2.4 hours, respectively, for initial doses of 400, 600, and 800 r. On the basis of the preceding results, the following tentative conclusions were reached: 1. The damage leading to death in the first 100 hours repairs at a faster rate than the damage responsible for 30-day lethality. 2. Repair in both cases appears to consist of two components, one component having a short half-time and the other a T= 33 OAYS long half time. 3. Neither the extent of percent residual T RESIDUAL DAMAGE (% OF INITIAL} 50] damage nor the repair half-time is affected by the size of the initial dose in 2or- 4 & 100;- 7 3 < = w 4s °o se 80}- =o > a ~~. te ™~ ~~ s ~~ ° a > 60;-- oO 4 ~~ m™~ = ~| _! <q B 40h 100 T T t T T oa T w 20/1600 2000 3060 TIME BETWEEN DOSES (HOURS) Ficure 2.—Slow component in repair of damage contributing te 80-day lethality. by the inverse of the variance and the com- mon slope obtained. These data are plotted in Figure 5. It is thought that this plot represents the slow component of repair. The halftime was approximately 15 days as opposed to the half-time of 33 days obtained when the LD,-30 days was used as the end-point. By subtracting the contribution of the slow component from thetotal effect, it was possible to obtain values for the fast component. percent total residual at time 0 and probably The 8-hour values fell badly out of line and ac- cordingly were not used in this figure. oe sor- 4 The 0 0 po i 05 1 pe 5 10 td 50 too pe : §00 1000 TIME BETWEEN DOSES (HOURS) the case of 30-daylethality. 30] 20;- ° Ty19-10 HRS, 2 Both the extent of percent residual and the repair rate of the fast component are propor- tional to dose in the case of 100-hour death. 4. No evidence of a permanent level of residual damage was obtained in either study. 5. Since repair of damage leading to death by two different mechanisms showsdifa et Frioure 4.—Perceni residual damage as mcasured by depressionof the LDgy-100 hours as a function of log time. 40) These data are shown in Figure 6. The regression lines shown were arbitrarily forced through the zero time point since this point is based on 100 has more validity than the other points. OO GOOr INITIAL DOSE a— ai BOOr INITIAL DOSE RESIDUAL INJURY {% OF INITIAL) ‘ 4 o———@ 400r INITIAL DOSE 1 4 ! | J wt. | 6 12 16 20 24 TIME BETWEEN DOSES (HOURS) Figure 3.-~Fast component in repair of damage contributing to 30-day lethality. ferent characteristics, it is likely that death from other mechanisms (such as premature aging) will also differ from the two mechanisms studied. 6. The residual injury leading to life shortening is probably not related to the residual injury measured in the present studies, since it is reasonably certain that a permanentresidual injury causcs life shortening. No permanent residual was detected in these studies. 7. Both the LDy-30 days and the LDy»- 100 hours should be dose rate dependent with more very fast the LD»-100 hours being much rate dependent because of the short half-time for repair of the component. Preliminary studies have supported this view.