RECONSTITUTION OF EXTERNAL GRANULAR LAYER OF CEREBELLAR CORTEX IN INFANT RATS AFTER LOW-LEVEL X-IRRADIATION

The heads of three‐day old rats were irradiated with a single dose of 200 r x‐ray and the animals were killed afterwards at intervals ranging from ten minutes to five days. Necrosis in the external granular layer of the cerebellum was evident by the fourth hour and the pyknotic cells increased in number up to 12 hours after irradiation. Between 24 to 48 hours all the pyknotic cells disappeared and the width of the layer was drastically reduced. By the third day after irradiation the external granular layer began to increase in width, and by the fourth day it was indistinguishable from normal. In adults of this group the cerebellum appeared structurally normal. In another experiment the cerebellum of rats was exposed from birth onward to 200 r on five successive days. In the animals killed immediately or one day after the last radiation session the external granular layer was totally or subtotally eradicated. In the animals surviving for four days the external granular layer reappeared over many regions of the cerebellum, and by the sixth day after irradiation it was present over its entire surface. In the latter group in animals that survived to 30 and 90 days of age the cerebellum contained a large, though subnormal, population of granule cells, indicating that the reconstituted cells were able to differentiate. These results suggested that the proliferative matrix of the postnatally developing cerebellum may be endowed with regenerative capacity. Copyright © 1969 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.