title: The question of threshold doses for radiation damage: malformations induced by radiation exposure of unicellular or multicellular preimplantation stages of the mouse.
abstract: Mouse embryos of the one-cell stage or the 32- to 64-cell stage were exposed to various X-ray doses (one-cell stage: 0.25-2 Gy; 32- to 64-cell stage: 1-3 Gy). It turned out that the shape of the dose-response curves is statistically compatible with the assumption derived from biological considerations that there is no threshold for radiation-induced malformations in the case of the exposure of one-cell embryos, whereas there is a threshold dose (close to 1 Gy) in the case of the exposure of 32- to 64-cell embryos.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Medizinische Strahlenbiologie, Universitätsklinikum Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: W U
authors.initials: WU
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Streffer
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pampfer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000528:radiation effects*; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D020964:Embryo Loss; D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death; D005333:Fetus / Q000002:abnormalities; D051379:Mice; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011270:Pregnancy, Animal / Q000528:radiation effects*