Abstract
As has been shown by various observers, the exposure of living tissues to the influence of radium rays leads to a severe injury and ultimate destruction of these tissues. In our work an attempt was made to study this destructive influence on mammalian embryos in utero, in the hope that a partial or complete destruction of one or more tissues might lead to definite abnormalities or malformations in these fetuses.
Bagg had lately used a method of applying radium, which was described in the Journal of Cancer Research, Vol. V, 1920. Radium emanation, carried in a very small amount of saline solution, was injected in measured quantities into adult rats, either subcutaneously or intravenously. This solution contained all the properties of the radium metal itself, and, no doubt, the resulting physiological changes were due mainly to the activity of α-rays. Such an injection produced peculiar destructive changes in the inner organs of the animals
The same method was used in our experiments. After long experimentation we found that a dose of 5 mc. (= milli-curies, a standard unit in radium experimentation) was about the optimal dose. Such an amount was injected into female rats, pregnant and non-pregnant, with the purpose of either injuring the ovarian or uterine tissues, or, in case of pregnancy, the embryonic tissues. While the results were not those which we expected, viz., the production of various types of monstrosities, yet a definite influence of radium on the fetal and placental tissues was noticeable. Radium-treated rats were killed at different periods of pregnancy, so as to procure a series of fetuses of various ages.
The mast destructive results of radium emanation, injected subcutaneously, were seen in a number of pregnant females, in which the embryos were killed in the uterus and, instead of being aborted, remained attached to the uterine wall and were gradually absorbed (group I).
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