Reduced Secondary Disease Mortality in Mouse Radiation Chimeras

Summary

A program was undertaken to ascertain the role of donor marrow age, cell dose, day of injection after irradiation, and sex as single or interacting factors in determining the 90-day cumulative mortality from secondary disease in mouse radiation chimeras. It was found that 40 million 3-day-old donor marrow cells gave the fewest deaths (∼5%). An experimental design approach was used, and the present report concerns a 2 × 3³factorial design (Design 4). Extrabinomial variation in deaths among mice in different cages was absent from Design 4, and no animals in the experiments reported here died earlier than 12 days after 950 r X irradiation.