Gross and Subcellular Distribution of Cesium-137 in Pigeon (Columba livia) Tissues with Special Reference to Muscles

Abstract

A study on the gross distribution of ¹³⁷Cs in pigeon tissues showed that initially cardiac muscle acquired the maximum amount of the radionuclide followed by pancreas, liver, gizzard, red muscle and white muscle in that order. Over a period of time white muscle showed more radioactivity than the other tissues because it accumulated ¹³⁷Cs steadily and lost the radionuclide more slowly. Among the subcellular fractions, the supernatant had 65-80 %, nuclear fraction 12-21 %, mitochondria 1.1-10 % and microsomes 0.45-3.4 % radioactivity indicating that the major portion of ¹³⁷Cs in cells occurs in soluble form.