Effect of paternal exposure to gamma radiation on the development of rat brain

Effects of irradiation (3 Gy of gamma rays) of parental male rats 25 or 80 days before mating with non-irradiated females on the brain development in the offspring (F 1 generation) were studied. In the brain of irradiated parental male rats 25 days after irradiation, only slight quantitative changes of nucleic acids in the cerebellum and increase in proportion of H 10 sub-fraction in the H 1 histone fraction in brain hemispheres were found. On day 80 after irradiation, the changes were more profound and also a shift in relative proportion in individual histone fractions in brain hemispheres occurred. In the offspring of irradiated males, transitional alterations in concentration and total content of RNA, DNA and histones and shift in the relative proportion of individual histone fractions were found. Some changes of nucleic acids were more profound in the progeny obtained from spermatozoon irradiated 25 days before mating (in the post-meiotic spermatic stage). On the other hand, male rats irradiated 80 days before mating (in the pre-meiotic stem spermatogonia stage) had less number of progeny. (authors)