Cytogenetic analysis of thymocytes during early stages after irradiation in mice with different susceptibilities to radiation-induced lymphomagenesis.

To investigate the relationship between radiation-induced chromosomal instability and lymphomagenesis, the incidences of chromosome aberrations and of cells with abnormal chromosome complements in the thymuses of B10. Thy 1.1 and STS/A strains which have shown marked differences in susceptibility to radiation-induced lymphomagenesis were compared at an early time (12-33 days) after whole-body X-irradiation (1.61 Gy X 4). Numerical and structural aberrations of chromosome in B10. Thy 1.1 mice were higher than those in STS/A mice. The average incidence of trisomy 15 was 37.5% (12/32 mice) from 12 days to 32 days after irradiation in B10. Thy 1.1 mice, whereas none was found (0/38 mice) in STS/A mice. Frequencies of aberrations in chromosomes 11, 12, 15 of the thymocytes from irradiated B10. Thy 1.1 mice were higher than those from irradiated STS/A mice, and especially, the most frequent translocations occurred in the E-F regions of chromosome 12. using B10. Thy 1 congenic mice, we found that in many cases (8/13), the chromosome aberrations detected in the thymocytes from B10. Thy 1.1 mice at an early time after irradiation could also be observed in the donor-type (Thy 1.1) lymphomas developed from recipient mice 4-5 months after intrathymic injection, suggesting that these chromosome aberrations have some role in lymphomagenesis. The difference of chromosome instability detected at an early time after irradiation might be due to genetic background with regard to genomic instability induced by radiation.