Genetic Effects of Strontium-90 injected into Male Mice

Abstract

IN estimations of the genetic risks from the fall-out after bomb-tests little attention has been paid to strontium-90. This is in fact remarkable since Mazia¹, as early as 1954, suggested that bivalent metallic ions are bound in the chromosomes. Steffensen and LaChance² have shown that strontium-90 is incorporated into chromosomes in Lilium and Habrobracon. Therefore it is desirable to examine the possible genetic consequences. As a first step to study the effects of strontium-90 on the chromosomes we have analysed the rate of intra-uterine death among offspring to male mice, which received intraperitoneal injections of strontium-90. Strontium could cause chromosome breaks in spermatozoa and spermatids due to the radiation emitted from the strontium circulating in the blood and the lymph. Furthermore, strontium-ions could be incorporated into the chromosomes and could there, also through the disintegration process, cause chromosome breaks which afterwards cause the death of a zygote.