From previous post (link below), I found what I did wrong in my experiment. Fortunately there was a publication using the same X-ray irradiator and I followed their settings, which includes 0.5mm aluminium filter. I was able to acheive >80% donor cell population after 6 weeks of irradiation. Although it is a huge improvement from ~20%, it is still not enough. And burns on the back of mice are still there. I guess the x-ray need more hardening, but my options are limited. I have 0.5mm and 1mm Al, and 0.1mm and 0,3mm Cu filters. The problem is that the irradiator can take only one filter at a time, while Thoraeus filter is made of tin, copper and aluminium. So now I am wondering which one I should use for the best result.
One more question, I may have made a mistake by building an animal cage for x-ray irradiation with 2mm acrylic. At that time I did not know that acrylics can interfere with the irradiation, but apparently it blocks x-ray in some way. What exact properties does acrylic have on x-ray?
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_skin_lesion_and_low_donor_cell_frequency_in_my_bone_marrow_transfer_model_normal
Dear Wonyong
I will answer just your question about the acrylic cage, since I have no data about the x-ray irradiator you are using, nor I have (any) experience on x-ray irradiating animals. I am a physicist.
The acrylic, Poly(methyl methacrylate) or (PMMA), does interfere with the irradiation, attenuating the x-ray intensity of you x-ray source in certain extent that depends on the x-ray energy, and the wall thickness and its mass density. You can find the x-ray energy dependency of such attenuation visiting the link:
http://physics.nist.gov/PhysRefData/XrayMassCoef/tab4.html
then go to the Polymethyl Methacrylate entry. The http://physics.nist.gov/PhysRefData/XrayMassCoef page is plenty of information about x-ray attenuation by substances and elements. You will also find what happens with Cu and Al, for instance.
Hope this will help.
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