Atomic Energy of Canada Limited

About: Atomic Energy of Canada Limited is a company organization based out in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Neutron & Zirconium alloy. The organization has 4845 authors who have published 4826 publications receiving 102951 citations.

Low Doses of Radiation Increase the Latency of Spontaneous Lymphomas and Spinal Osteosarcomas in Cancer-Prone, Radiation-Sensitive Trp53 Heterozygous Mice

Abstract: Mice heterozygous for Trp53 are radiation-sensitive and cancer-prone, spontaneously developing a variety of cancer types. Osteosarcomas in the spine lead to paralysis, while lymphomas lead rapidly to death, distinct events that provide objective measures of latency. The effects of a single low-dose (10 or 100 mGy), low-dose-rate (0.5 mGy/min) 60Co g irradiation on lymphoma or spinal osteosarcoma frequency and latency, defined as time of death or of onset of paralysis, respectively, were examined. Compared to spontaneous lymphomas or to spinal osteosarcomas leading to paralysis in unexposed mice, an exposure of 7‐8-week-old Trp531/2 mice to 10 or 100 mGy had no significant effect on tumor frequency, indicating no effect on tumor initiation. All tumors are therefore assumed to be of spontaneous origin. However, a 10-mGy exposure reduced the risk of both lymphomas and spinal osteosarcomas by significantly increasing tumor latency, indicating that the main in vivo effect of a low-dose exposure is a reduction in the rate at which spontaneously initiated cells progress to malignancy. The effect of this adaptive response persisted for the entire life span of all the animals that developed these tumors. Exposure to 100 mGy delayed lymphoma latency longer than the 10-mGy exposure. However, the 100-mGy dose increased spinal osteosarcoma risk by decreasing overall latency compared to unexposed control mice. That result suggested that this higher dose was in a transition zone between reduced and increased risk, but that the dose at which the transition occurs varies with the tumor type. q 2003 by Radiation Research Society

The Crystal Dynamics of Lead Telluride

Abstract: The frequencies of the normal modes of vibration of lead telluride propagating in certain symmetric directions have been determined by inelastic neutron scattering techniques. The results have been used to deduce the parameters of rigid ion models and of shell models for the interatomic forces. The latter models take account of the polarizability of the ions. Neither type of model is very successful, but the best shell model does provide a good fit to the results and has been used to calculate the frequency distribution and specific heat. Calculations of the thermal expansion, and of the lifetime of the transverse optic modes, show that anharmonic interactions in lead telluride are considerably more complex than in the simple alkali halides. A detailed account of the effect of doping on the lattice vibrations is given, in which it is shown that large effects are limited to the long wavelength regions of the dispersion curves. Detailed calculations are presented for the dispersion of the optical branches as a function of the dopant concentration. The importance of these effects for different kinds of experimental studies is briefly discussed.

The effects of dietary zinc deficiency on the reproductive system of male rats.

Abstract: Dietary zinc deficiency produced by feeding a zinc-poor diet (0.5 μg. zinc per g.) to weanling rats for 8 weeks caused marked retardation in body growth, depressed growth and development of testes, epididymes, accessory sex organs, and pituitary glands, and in many cases severe atrophy of testicular germinal epithelium. The zinc concentration of dorsolateral prostates, testes, epididymes, and bone was reduced in zinc-deficient rats compared with controls receiving the zinc-poor diet plus 100 μg. zinc daily. Restricted feeding of the zinc-supplemented diet to produce body weights comparable to those in zinc-deficient rats caused a reduction in pituitary gland and accessory sex organ size which was similar to that observed in zinc-deficient rats. Testis growth and development were normal in the restricted controls and did not differ from controls fed ad libitum. The zinc concentration of dorsolateral prostates was reduced in restricted controls but exceeded that in the zinc-deficient rats. All the observed ...

Residual γH2AX foci as an indication of lethal DNA lesions

Abstract: Evidence suggests that tumor cells exposed to some DNA damaging agents are more likely to die if they retain microscopically visible γH2AX foci that are known to mark sites of double-strand breaks. This appears to be true even after exposure to the alkylating agent MNNG that does not cause direct double-strand breaks but does produce γH2AX foci when damaged DNA undergoes replication. To examine this predictive ability further, SiHa human cervical carcinoma cells were exposed to 8 DNA damaging drugs (camptothecin, cisplatin, doxorubicin, etoposide, hydrogen peroxide, MNNG, temozolomide, and tirapazamine) and the fraction of cells that retained γH2AX foci 24 hours after a 30 or 60 min treatment was compared with the fraction of cells that lost clonogenicity. To determine if cells with residual repair foci are the cells that die, SiHa cervical cancer cells were stably transfected with a RAD51-GFP construct and live cell analysis was used to follow the fate of irradiated cells with RAD51-GFP foci. For all drugs regardless of their mechanism of interaction with DNA, close to a 1:1 correlation was observed between clonogenic surviving fraction and the fraction of cells that retained γH2AX foci 24 hours after treatment. Initial studies established that the fraction of cells that retained RAD51 foci after irradiation was similar to the fraction of cells that retained γH2AX foci and subsequently lost clonogenicity. Tracking individual irradiated live cells confirmed that SiHa cells with RAD51-GFP foci 24 hours after irradiation were more likely to die. Retention of DNA damage-induced γH2AX foci appears to be indicative of lethal DNA damage so that it may be possible to predict tumor cell killing by a wide variety of DNA damaging agents simply by scoring the fraction of cells that retain γH2AX foci.