Chromosomal damage and mitotic index in Bosnian and Herzegovinian mountain horse lymphocytes following low dosage X-ray irradiation in vitro

In this study we investigated the influence of low dosage X-ray irradiation on the incidence of chromosomal damage and changes in mitotic index (MI) in cultured peripheral lymphocytes of Bosnian and Herzegovinian mountain horse following in vitro irradiation. X-ray irradiation induced a dose-dependent decrease in MI but only the dose of 0.5 Gy induced a significant decrease in comparison with the control and other dose groups. The analysis the chromosomal damage revealed a clear dose-dependent increase in the incidence of chromosomal damage per metaphase. Significant differences were detected by analysis of variance and the LSD test confirmed significant differences between cell that received 0.2 Gy and 0.5 Gy when compared to the control cells and cells that received 0.1 Gy. However, Scheeffes' test assigned significance only to the differences established between the cells that received 0.5 Gy and the other groups of lymphocytes.