Effects of Radiation on the Spinal Cord of Wistar Rats Exposed to X-Ray

The spinal cord is a major dose limiting organ in radiotherapy and it is unavoidably included in the treatment fields, injury to the spinal cord results in the destruction or impairment of its function which manifest from one to several years after treatment. It is an animal experimental study with a total of 20 adult albino Wistar rat weighing between 150g to 200g were used for this study. The animals were acquired from animal’s house at University of Port Harcourt and acclimatize for two weeks. In this results from this research work, there were notable damage to the spinal cord after being exposed to radiation at a given time. These damages includes; degenerations and reduction in number of motor neutrons, degeneration of pyramidal cells, depletion of cell cytoplasm, vacuolation were also observed in this rats belonging to group C and less motor neurons were seen. The exposure of high amount of radiation continually to the spinal cord damages the motor neurons of the corticospinal pathways where it caused cells degeneration leading to cell death. The death of the motor neurons would mean an impairment in the locomotive functions of the animal.