Effects of Social Environment on Mortality to Whole Body X-Irradiation in the Rat

Abstract

Group- and individually-reared rats were exposed to 750 r of whole body x-irradiation and then subdivided into group- and individually-housed samples. There were no differential effects of housing on mortality rate among males. Among females there was an apparent interaction between the pre- and post-irradiation conditions of housing such that for the group-reared females there was a significantly greater mortality rate in the animals housed in groups than in those housed individually.