Two types of polyethylene, low density (LDPE) and high density (HDPE), as well as low density polyethylene containing an antioxidant were subjected to ?-irradiation in the presence of air and in water. The irradiated polymers were studied using IR spectrophotometric analysis. The radiation induced oxidative degradation was followed through the formation of oxygen containing groups by the development of bands in the 1850?1650 cm-1 region and double bonds formation by the development of bands in the 1050?850 cm-1 region. The crosslinking efficiency was determined by measuring the gel content by extraction with xylene. The radiation induced changes in the molecular structure, evolution of oxygen containing species and formation, of vinyl double bonds as well as of the crosslinking efficiency are discussed in terms of the properties of the polymers in an electric field of low strength.
AimTo investigate the survival of laboratory rats after irradiation and to study the cellularity of their bone marrow and the multipotential mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) in groups treated with or without a new thiol-based radioprotector (GM2011)MethodsAnimals were irradiated by a Cobalt gamma source at 6.7 Gy. Treated animals were given i.p. GM2011 30 minutes before and 3 and 7 hours after irradiation. Controls consisted of sham irradiated animals without treatment and animals treated without irradiation. After 30 days post-irradiation, animals were sacrificed and bone marrow cells were prepared from isolated femurs. A colony forming unit-fibroblast (CFU-F) assay was performed to obtain the number of BM-MSCs.ResultsIn the treated group, 87% of animals survived, compared to only 30% in the non-treated irradiated group. Irradiation induced significant changes in the bone marrow of the treated rats (total bone marrow cellularity was reduced by ~ 60% – from 63 to 28 cells ×106/femur and the frequency of the CFU-F per femur by ~ 70% – from 357 to 97), however GL2011 almost completely prevented the suppressive effect observed on day 30 post-irradiation (71 cells ×106/femur and 230 CFU-F/femur).ConclusionAlthough the irradiation dosage was relatively high, GL2011 acted as a very effective new radioprotector. The recovery of the BN-MSCs and their counts support the effectiveness of the studied radioprotector.
The essential prerequisite of radiation dosimetry is to provide quality assurance and documentation that the irradiation procedure has been carried out according to the specification requirement of correct calibration of the chosen dosimetry system. At the Radiation Plant of the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences we compared two recommended protocols of irradiation procedures in the calibration of dosimetry systems in radiation processing: (1) by irradiation of routine dosimeters (ethanol-chlorobenzene - ECB) at the calibration laboratory and (2), by in-plant calibration with alanine transfer - dosimeters. The critical point for in-plant calibration is irradiation geometry, so we carefully positioned the phantom carrying both dosimeters in order to minimize dose gradients across the sample. The analysis of results obtained showed that the difference among determined absorbed doses for the construction of calibration curves between these two methods, (alanine vs. ECB), is less than 1%. The difference in combined standard uncertainty for each calibration procedure is 0.1%. These results demonstrate that our in-plant calibration is as good as calibration by irradiation at the calibration laboratory and validates our placement of the irradiation phantom during irradiation
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