Cytogenetic changes in the liver of progeny of irradiated male rats.

The transgenerational transmission of radiation damage of rat genom was studied on the basis of cytogenetic changes in somatic cells (hepatocytes). It was found, that the irradiation of rat males with dose of 3 Gy of gamma radiation caused latent cytogenetic damage to the liver, which was expressed during the course of an induced proliferation of hepatocytes (by partial hepatectomy) by lower proliferative activity and a high frequency of chromosomal aberrations. In the progeny of irradiated males (in the F1 generation), the radiation damage to DNA was manifested by similar changes, i.e. by lower proliferation activity and increase in "spontaneous" chromosomal aberration occurrence in liver regeneration after partial hepatectomy. Irradiating the progeny of irradiated males (the total radiation load of the progeny being 3 Gy + 3 Gy) caused slighter changes in compared with irradiating the progeny of non-irradiated control males (the total radiation load of the progeny being 0 Gy + 3 Gy), which suggests some kind of adaptive response, which was also found in other experimental systems and parameters. An analogous course of RNA and DNA quantitative changes in the liver of the F0 and F1 generations of rats confirms the partial transmission of radiation damage of genom to the progeny.