Repair of late and early radiation injury in lungs of experimental mice

The measurement of breathing rate in mice after irradiation of the thorax enables both an acute phase of pneumonitis (2 to 5 months) and a late phase of fibrosis (after 8 months) to be distinguished. These types of damage can be spared by different procedures. LD50 experiments only investigate the acute pneumonitis, not the late fibrosis. Breathing rate measurements can be made on the same animals for more than a year after irradiation, so that late and early injury in lung can be directly compared