Distributions of cell populations within α-particle range of plutonium deposits in the rat and beagle testis

Plutonium is not uniformly distributed in testicular tissues; thus some cell populations may receive larger or smaller radiation exposures than would be expected if the nuclide were uniformly distributed. The distributions of cell populations within α-particle range of Pu deposits in rat and beagle testes were determined. The data were collected from autoradiographs of testicular tissues containing 241Pu. A cell distribution factor (CDF) was determined for each cell population and is defined as the average number of each cell type within α-particle range of each observed Pu deposit relative to the number of each cell type that would be expected within α-particle range of each Pu deposit, if the deposits were distributed uniformly. In addition, the percentage of the spermatogonial stem cell population within α-particle range of Pu deposits was determined. The largest CDFs seen in both species were in the interstitial tissues, particulary for Leydig cells. Because the organization of testicular tissues in the beagle is quite different from rodents but more similar to human, the results from this study suggest that extrapolations from rodents to humans may tend to overestimate the potential for radiation exposure to spermatogonial stem cells as well as the fraction of the spermatogonial stem cell population at risk to exposure from internally deposited 239Pu