Radiation exposure-rate dependence of the immune response in mice.

Abstract The effect of the acute radiation exposure rate upon the formation of circulating antibodies was studied in mice exposed to 200–800 R 60Co gamma radiation at 8–72 R/min. After 400–800 R, antibody formation decreased as the exposure rate increased. Maximum rate dependence occurred when the antigen was given twelve hours before 700 R. Cell transfer studies demonstrated that exposure-rate dependence occurred at the immune-cell level. Comparison between exposure-rate-dependent thirty-day mortality and rate-dependent immune suppression suggests that these two measures of exposure-rate-dependent damage are not parallel.