[The radioprotective effect of hypothermia on the immune and hematopoietic systems in mammals].

The functional activity of the synthetic apparatus (parameter alpha) in blood lymphocytes, bone marrow hemopoietic cells, and thymus cells, as well as the total number of blood and bone marrow cells in rats after y-irradiation at a dose of 8 Gy in the conditions of normothermia and hypothermia (16-18 degrees C) with hypoxia-hypercapnia were investigated after 2 h and on days 1 and 4. The recovery processes in blood in both groups of rats after acute X-irradiation at a dose of 7 Gy for 36 days were analyzed too. Under hypothermia, on days 1-4 after acute gamma-irradiation, a decrease in the synthetic activity in remaining cells and devastation in the hemopoietic system were pronounced to a lesser degree. After X-irradiation, the restoration of synthetic activity in blood lymphocytes was shown to begin earlier and to finish faster in "hypothermic" rats as compared with the animals irradiated in the state of normothermia. The survival of "hypothermic" rats was 100% as compared with 30% in "normothermic" animals. Thus, the data show that hypothermia exerts a radioprotective effect on the cells of the immune and hemopoietic systems, thus enhancing the resistance of the organism to radiation.