Transgenerational developmental effects and genomic instability after x-irradiation of preimplantation embryos : studies on two mouse strains

Recent results have shown that irradiation of a single cell, the 1-cell embryo of various mouse strains, could lead to congenital anomalies in the fetuses. In the Heiligenberger strain, a link between the radiation-induced congenital anomalies and the development of a genomic instability was also suggested. Moreover, further studies showed that in that strain, both congenital anomalies and genomic instability could be transmitted to the next generation. The aim of the experiments described in this paper was to investigate whether such trans-generational effects could also be observed in two other radiosensitive mouse strains (CF1 and ICR), using lower radiation doses. Irradiation of the CF1 and ICR female zygotes with 0.2 or 0.4 Gy did neither result in a decrease of their fertility after birth, nor in an increase of the frequency of abnormal fetuses in the next generation.. Moreover, irradiation of female zygotes of these two mouse strains did not result in the development of a genomic instability in the next generation embryos.