243,244Cm studies in C57BL/Do mice.
Three groups of C57BL/Do mice were injected with different activities of 243,244Cm so that the long-term biological effects could be evaluated. The biological retention, R, of injected curium in the skeleton at t days after injection could be represented by the equations R = 0.245e-0.000379t and R = 0.208e-0.000494t for male and female mice, respectively. Effective skeletal retention equations were used to calculate the cumulative mean skeletal dose in rad at 140 days before death in each group of mice. The primary objective of this study was to determine the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of 243,244Cm compared to 226Ra, using bone sarcoma induction as the end point. Combined data (bone sarcomas per 10(6) mouse-rad) for male and female mice permitted the RBE value +/- SD for 243,244Cm to be calculated as 4.4 +/- 1.8 compared to 1.0 for 226Ra. A comparison of RBE values form a previous study in this mouse strain and the value for 243,244Cm from this study suggests that the trivalent actinides 241Am, 243,244Cm, and 249Cf are about three times less effective for bone sarcoma induction than 239Pu.