lethally vs. sublethally irradiate mice - (May/18/2011 )

Hello All,

Could someone please tell me the difference between lethally irradiating vs. subletahlly irradiating mice?
When we use each of them?

I am referring to HSC transplantation experiment in immunodeficient mice.

Many thanks.

lethally means the mice will die, sublethally means they will survive... check out the SI unit "Gray" for more information.

Thank you bob1,

However, when do we use sublethal condition in the context of HSC transplantation? What is the difference regarding application.

I have no idea, however presuming you are meaning hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (as google told me), if you want the mouse to survive the radiation and continue living following the transplant - then you need to use sublethal irradiation to kill the bone marrow in the mouse. You could use lethal doses to study how transplantation of HSCs allows radiation survival I guess?