| Abstract: | It has been reported elsewhere that in addition to enhancing the expression of metallothionein genes, the previous injection of cadmium salts into sublethally X-irradiated mice increases by 10 times the number of endogenous spleen colonies. To understand the mechanism of the strong radioprotective cadmium effect donors and recipients were treated separately. It is shown that the survival of exogenous bone marrow colony-forming cells in lethally irradiated recipient remains at the control level independently of the donor cadmium treatment, whereas the injection of cadmium nitrate to recipient mice leads to the stimulation of colony formation by 1.7-1.8 times. The data allow to conclude that the cadmium effect on the survival of colony-forming hemopoietic murine cells after X-irradiation is not mediated by the enhanced expression of metallothionein genes. |
