Abstract
IT has been shown that the shielding of the liver in situ protects 73 per cent of a group of rats against a dose of X-rays which is 100 per cent lethal after fifteen days for the control animals1. E. S. G. Barron2 showed that glutathione had a protective action in mice when injected before the lethal irradiation. Bacq and his co-workers3 have shown that β-mercaptoethylamine protects mice against a lethal dose of X-rays when this compound is injected into the animals immediately before the total body irradiation. We have been able to confirm these results in rats4. On the other hand, the β-mercaptoethylamine is completely inactive when given even immediately after the exposure to a lethal dose.
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Mandart, M., Lambert, G., Maisin, H., and Maisin, J., C.R. Soc. Biol., 146, 1647 (1952).
Barron, E. S. G., Manhattan District Declassified Document 484. (Oak Ridge: Atomic Energy Commission, Technical and Information Division, 1946.)
Bacq, Z. M., and Herve, A., Bull. Acad. R. Med. Belg., 17, 19 (1952).
Lambert, G., Maisin, J., and Mandart, M., C.R. Soc. Biol., 146, 1434 (1952).
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MAISIN, J., LAMBERT, G., MANDART, M. et al. Therapeutic Action of Glutathione and Mercaptoethylamine against a Lethal Dose of X-Rays. Nature 171, 971 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1038/171971a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/171971a0
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