Blood, 1957, Vol. 12, No. 8, pp. 733-745.
© 1957 American Society of Hematology, Inc.
In Vitro Effects of X-radiation on White Blood Cells and
Blood Platelets
RICHARD WAGNER 1,
NORMA MEYERRIECKS 1, and
CARROLL Z. BERMAN 1
1 Research Laboratory of The Boston Floating Hospital, the Department of
Pediatrics, Tufts University School of Medicine, and the Department of Radiology, Boston Dispensary, Boston, Massachusetts.
1) Alkaline phosphatase activity of leukocytes is enhanced by radiation with
50,000 r. This disturbance accentuates the inherent aging process of white blood
cells and may be explained by changes in the cell envelope.
2) X-radiation diminishes the endogenous oxygen uptake of leukocyte-platelet
suspensions by approximately 20 per cent. This response to radiation is demonstrable at exposures of as little as 5,000 r. The decreasing effect is diminished
when substrates such as sodium succinate or 
-glycerophosphate are added,
within a wide range of their concentration. With increasing substrate concentration the decrease due to radiation approaches that of the endogenous respiration
and even exceeds it in some of the experiments.
3) In pure blood platelets a similar decreasing x-radiation effect occurs for
endogenous respiration as well as succinic dehydrogenase activity; -glycerophosphate dehydrogenase activity, on the other hand, is enhanced.
4) The oxygen uptake in leukocyte-platelet suspensions due only to leukocytes
can be calculated. While the percentage radiation decrease of pure leukocytes is
unchanged for endogenous and succinate activity, the decrease for -glycerophosphate as substrate reaches considerably higher levels (68 per cent compared with
8.2 per cent in leukocyte-platelet suspensions). Thus -glycerophosphate dehydrogenase activity seems to be most sensitive to x-radiation. It was shown in
one of our previous studies that -glycerophosphate dehydrogenase is one of the
most important respiratory enzymes in leukocytes.
5) The glycolytic system in leukocytes remains intact following exposure to
radiation with 50,000 r.
Submitted on October 5, 1956
Accepted on March 27, 1957
