[Morphological and cytogenetic disorders in rats following chronic exposure to elevated radiation].

Object of the investigation were effects of elevated radiation background on specific body systems in two generations of rats that had been chronically exposed to radiation in the most badly polluted areas of the Kaluga district and eaten local food. Findings included some compensatory deviations in the white blood count, decrease in karyocytes and increase in chromosomal aberration rate in nucleus-containing cells from the femoral bone marrow in younger animals of several groups, morphologic and histochemical shifts in mucous membrane of the esophagus and the stomach, and morphofunctional changes in neurons and glia of the cerebral cortex. These changes are compensatory-adaptive by nature and indicative of destabilization of homeostasis in experimental animals.

[Morphological changes in the central nervous system of animals depending on the dosage and time elapsed after exposure to low let radiation].

Analytical review of the morphological investigations of cerebral cortex neurons of various animals shortly after exposure to X- and gamma-radiation was made. Considered were data of qualitative and quantitative analyses of dystrophic changes in neurons of the sensorimotor cortex of the large cerebral hemispheres of rats immediately and a long period since X-irradiation. Results of the quantitative analysis of structural disorders in the central nervous system neurons suggest radiation-produced damages early after exposure of animals to relatively low doses.

[Effects of small fluxes of heavy charged particles on neurons of the rats' cerebral cortex in delayed periods following irradiation].

Dystrophic changes in neurons of the sensorimotor cortex of rat's brain in delayed periods following exposure to small fluxes, i.e. 104 and 105 particles/cm2, of accelerated carbon, fluorine, and oxygen ions with an energy of 300 MeV/nucleon and 137Cs gamma-rays at a dose of 1.

Morphological changes in rat's brain choroid plexus after exposure to low doses of high energy oxygen ions, fast neutrons, and gamma radiation.

Ultrastructural and morphometrical changes in choroid plexus cells of the rat's brain in the delay period after irradiation with low doses of oxygen ions [= 300 MeV/nucleon], and fast neutrons [1.5 MeV], and gamma rays (Co60) were described. The applied irradiations provoked similar ultrastructural changes in choroid plexus cells; however, the obtained morphometrical data showed differing effects of these radiations, due to, probably, different mechanisms of their effect on the cells.