Summary of Proceedings of the Bone Marrow Transplantation and Chemical Radiation Protection Conference

Radiation accidents.-Flynn outlined in detail all the available information on the Los Alamos radiation accident of December 1958. The accident occurred in a plutonium salvage operation. Supportive therapy probably prevented the exposed person from dying almost immediately from a shock-like syndrome. He died 36 hours after the accident, from central nervous system damage. Vos reviewed newspaper reports on the Yugoslavian reactor accident. Several of the victims received bone marrow transplantation and are recovering. One man died shortly after bone marrow therapy. According to a personal cornmunication received by Dameshek, there was transplantation of blood-forming cells. Bone marrow therapy was delayed for several weeks in these accident victims. The problem of delay in bone marrow injection was discussed later in the session. Andrews reviewed the health status of the persons exposed in the June 16, 1958, Y-12 ( Oak Ridge ) radiation accident. Hematologic recovery was excellent, but some individuals still complain of aches, pains and general muscle weakness. Fliedner described the effect of the accidental exposure on the mitotic index in the bone marrow of these patients. He thinks this index may help in evaluating the degree of exposure. Bone marrow procurement in man.-Repplinger described a technic for removing marrow cells from the vertebral bodies of cadavers. As many as 130 x 10 cells per vertebral column could be obtained. Schtvartz and Dameshek pointed out that they were now able to obtain large amounts of marrow by aspiration from living donors. Other discussion of tissue culture and preservation followed. Bender felt that tissue culture viability was the best method to test for living cells. Rin fret discussed engineering research at Linde Company on apparatus for low-temperature preservation. Bone marrow transplantation in man.-Wilson and Dammin reported the clinical and pathologic findings in two patients given total-body irradiation and homologous bone marrow injection. Kidney homografting was performed in one patient but could not be carried out in the other. The homografted kidney did not show the expected graft rejection reaction during the 28 days the one patient lived. In neither case could bone marrow transplantation be