Quantitative cytochemical studies of the RNA in the spinal cord of gamma-irradiated mice.

Quantitative analysis of RNA content was carried out in the oligodendroglia apposed to motor neurons and oligodendrocytes located far from the perikaryons in the spinal cord of mice subjected to 630 rd of whole body gamma irradiation. Decrease of relative RNA content in the glial cells apposed to the neuronal body in the irradiated animals 30 min to one hour after irradiation and the increase of RNA content in these cells two to eight hours after radiation was found. Glia located far from the perikaryons of motor neurons reacted with increase of RNA content 30 min after irradiation and its sharp decrease one hour later. This difference in the reaction of glia to whole body irradiation may be due to different metabolic patterns between glia linked to neurons in neuroglial unit and glia located far from perikaryons.