title: Response of the rat spinal cord to X-ray microbeams.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To quantify the late dose-related responses of the rat cervical spinal cord to X-ray irradiations by an array of microbeams or by a single millimeter beam.
  
  
  METHODS
  Necks of anesthetized rats were irradiated transversely by an 11 mm wide array of 52 parallel, 35 μm wide, vertical X-ray microbeams, separated by 210 μm intervals between centers. Comparison was made with rats irradiated with a 1.35 mm wide single beam of similar X-rays. Rats were killed when paresis developed, or up to 383 days post irradiation (dpi).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Microbeam peak/valley doses of ≈357/12.7 Gy to 715/25.4 Gy to an 11 mm long segment of the spinal cord, or single beam doses of ≈146-454 Gy to a 1.35 mm long segment caused foreleg paresis and histopathologically verified spinal cord damage; rats exposed to peak/valley doses up to 253/9 Gy were paresis-free at 383 dpi.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Whereas microbeam radiation therapy [MRT] for malignant gliomas implanted in rat brains can be safe, palliative or curative, the high tolerance of normal rat spinal cords to similar microbeam exposures justifies testing MRT for autochthonous malignancies in the central nervous system of larger animals with a view to subsequent clinical applications.
authors: Institute of Pathology, University of Bern, Switzerland. laissue@pathology.unibe.ch
authors: Jean A
authors: JA
authors: Laissue
authors: Stefan
authors: S
authors: Bartzsch
authors: Hans
authors: H
authors: Blattmann
authors: Elke
authors: E
authors: Bräuer-Krisch
authors: Alberto
authors: A
authors: Bravin
authors: Dominique
authors: D
authors: Dalléry
authors: Valentin
authors: V
authors: Djonov
authors: Albert L
authors: AL
authors: Hanson
authors: John W
authors: JW
authors: Hopewell
authors: Barbara
authors: B
authors: Kaser-Hotz
authors: Jani
authors: J
authors: Keyriläinen
authors: Pierre Philippe
authors: PP
authors: Laissue
authors: Michiko
authors: M
authors: Miura
authors: Raphaël
authors: R
authors: Serduc
authors: Albert E
authors: AE
authors: Siegbahn
authors: Daniel N
authors: DN
authors: Slatkin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000473:pathology / Q000528:radiation effects*; D014965:X-Rays