Protective Action of Carbon Monoxide in Mammalian Whole-Body X-Irradiation

Abstract

Prophylactic and/or therapeutic agents combating the effects of ionizing radiation are naturally of great interest. Recently carbon monoxide has been reported (1, 2) as being a protector against X-irradiation. Bonet-Maury (2) believes that the carbon monoxide effect due to the formation of carboxyhemoglobin by the CO, leading to a reduced rate of oxygen from the lungs to the cells. Patt (3) reviews the many investigations on the relationship between oxygen and radiosensitivity. In this laboratory, protection from hypoxia significantly increased survival time of guinea pigs at all doses tested from 500 to 8000 r (4). Since carbon monoxide is another way of creating an hypoxia condition (5-7), the present study was designed to obtain (1) general information about the carbon monoxide effect when it is given before and/or after X-irradiation, and (2) specific information verified by statistical analysis.