Acute radiation effect in the brain in infant rats: Neurocognitive and histopathological examination.

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the radiation-induced cognitive dysfunction and the radioprotective effect of amifostine (AMI) in the brain of infantile rats.

Methods: Thirty 2-week-old rats were randomly assigned into 3 groups of 10 rats each. Group 1: control (CONT), group 2: radiation alone (RT), and group 3: AMI before radiation (AMI+RT). The rats in the RT and AMI+RT groups were irradiated individually with a single dose of 20 Gy. All animals were evaluated by using the Morris water maze test to evaluate of their cognitive functions. Histopathological analyses of the hippocampus were also carried out after euthanasia.

Results: The study showed that the place navigational function and the spatial probe test were not significantly different between the groups.

Conclusion: It can be said that it is very important to determine when the radiation-induced brain injury is formed. From a clinical perspective, the patients can be intervened before irreversible functional deficits are formed and may be amenable to treatment.