Conditioning activities of the first generation of male rats exposed to acute gamma-radiation of 1.0 Gy. Part 1

At the present time scientific papers report contradictory data about physical health of offspring of irradiated fathers. The experimental studies in animals make it possible to obtain the reliable information on this problem. The purpose of the work is to study the effect of acute whole-body gamma-radiation exposure of the Wistar rat males to dose of 1.0 Gy, dose rate 3´10 -3 Gy/s on the psychophysiological development of their offspring of the first generation (F1). First, control and experimental groups of the male rats demonstrated identical learning ability were identified. The male rats were mated with intact (non-irradiated) females on the 5-7 (the group “spermatozoa”), 16-22 (the group “spermatides”) and 85-90 (the group “spermatogonia”) days after exposure. Cognitive functions of the 3 months old progeny were tested using shuttle-box avoidance method. Females F1 and males F1 were tested separately two times with forty-eight-hour interval between tests. The special computer program was developed for the statistical treatment of the conditioned reflexes parameters. Study results demonstrated that the exposure of male rats to radiation at all stages of spermatogenesis negatively effected on the higher mental functions of F1 offspring. The short-term memory and long-term memory of the animals were impaired. The most severe impairment of cognitive functions of the brain were in the F1 males from the group “spermatozoa” and the group “spermatides”.