Transmission of genome damage from irradiated male rats to their progeny

The effect of γ-radiation (3Gy) on slowly proliferating liver tissue of male rats and their progeny was investigated with respect to induction and duration of latent damage. The irradiation caused latent cytogenetic damage in the liver in irradiated males of the F0 generation, which manifested itself in different ways during proliferation of hepatocytes induced by partial hepatectomy: a reduced proliferating activity, a higher frequency of chromosomal aberrations and a higher proportion of cells with apoptotic DNA fragments were observed, compared with non-irradiated rats. In the progeny of irradiated males (F1 and F2 generation), the latent genome damage manifested itself during regeneration of the liver after partial hepatectomy by similar, but less pronounced changes compared with those seen in irradiated males of the parental generation. This finding gave evidence of the transfer of part of the radiation-induced genome damage from parents to their offspring. Irradiation of F1 and F2 progeny of irradiated males (their total radiation load being 3+3 and 3+0+3Gy, respectively) caused less change as irradiation of progeny of non-irradiated control males (their total radiation load being 0+3 and 0+0+3Gy, respectively).