The dorsal skin of 158 Swiss Millerton mice was irradiated with electrons in single exposures at 6 dose levels from 500–4,000 rods. The mice were observed for skin-tumor formation every 4 weeks for 88 weeks. At death each tumor was examined histologically, and whole-skin mounts were used to determine the survival of intact hair follicles and the incidence of atrophic follicles. These data were compared with the dose-response characteristics for tumor induction and hair-follicle survival in the rat from previous experiments. The incidence of epithelial skin tumors was markedly lower in mice than in rats. This difference was due to the failure of mice to develop adnexal tumors, which are the predominant type of skin tumor in the rat. The radiation sensitivity of mouse skin for hair-follicle destruction was at least twice that of the rat. The relatively low level of atrophic follicle formation in the mouse skin as a consequence of radiation damage may be related to the failure to develop adnexal skin tumors.—J Natl Cancer Inst 49: 1131–1137, 1972.
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Albert et al. (1972) studied this question.