In vivo studies of the relationship between the activation of lipid metabolism, postirradiation bone marrow cell proliferation and radioresistance of mice.

The effect of adaptation to intermittent feeding on the in vivo biosynthesis of fatty acids and total lipids in the epididymal adipose tissue, the liver and the bone marrow was studied in adult male mice (CBA/JPh x C57BL@10 ScSnPh)F1. At the same time the effects of the same experimental stimulus on the rate of regeneration (proliferation) of bone marrow cells after sublethal irradiation of animals and on the overall radioresistance of mice expressed as 30 days survival after whole-body gamma irradiation were determined. Intermittent feeding in mice has been shown to have a significant effect on the biosynthesis of fatty acids and total lipids in all the tissues studied, including bone marrow cells, the intensity of the effect being closely dependent on the duration of the experimental stimulus. Maximum stimulation of lipogenesis during realimentation was observed approximately within 1 week of adaptation, with a reduction of the metabolic responses thereafter. The intensity of bone marrow cell proliferation in mice irradiated in the realimentation phase was inversely proportional to the preirradiation degree of biosynthesis of fatty acids and total lipids: in a period of lower lipogenetic capacity of cells in the tissue studied (around the weeks 2-5 of adaptation) an increase in the regeneration potential of bone marrow cells was observed together with increased radioresistance of the mice. During the 1-week of adaptation the opposite proved to be the case. Attention is drawn to the possible participation of prostaglandins and lipid peroxides in the responses observed.