Evaluation of low dose ionizing radiation effect on some blood components in animal model

Exposure to ionizing radiation is known to have lethal effects in blood cells. It is predicted that an individual may spend days, weeks or even months in a radiation field without becoming alarmed. The study aimed to discuss the evaluation of low dose ionizing radiation (IR) effect on some blood components in animal model. Hematological parameters were determined for 110 animal rats (divided into 8 groups) pre- and post-irradiation. An attempt to explain the blood changes resulting from both irradiation and time is given. There was a significant reduction in WBC counts one day after irradiation at all dose levels compared to the control group and started to be affected at the dose of 0.3 Gy. The significance was increasing with increasing the dose. The degradation rate was 15 times higher than the recovery rate. Although both rates increase with increasing the dose, however, the rate of recovery in the second stage is faster than that in the initial stage. Platelet count shows a slow increase in the rate of recovery with increasing the dose up to 0.4 Gy. After which there is a linear increase up to a dose of 1 Gy with a slope of 21 count/day/Gy. Additionally, there is an increase in the rate of degradation on the applied dose up to 0.3 Gy with a slope of 61.6 count/day/Gy. The recovery rate of red blood cells count (RBC) increases with the increase in the dose reaching a maximum at about 0.5 Gy. Further increase in dose resulted in a rapid degradation with a minimum count at the dose of 0.75 Gy at the maximum value of 0.5 Gy, the change in count decreases exponentially with the increase in time.The present findings suggest that damage from IR causes a significant reduction in blood cell counts in a dose-dependent manner, which may be considered a potential health risk during exposure to irradiation. Much effort must be done and focused on establishment of protocols for medical management of radiation injuries based on hematopoietic changes for biodosimetry.