Protective wounding results in decreased 30-day mortality of female C57BL/6 mice over a range of radiation doses. Mortality Curves are shown for sham-cut mice or mice that received a subcutaneous incision (3, 6 or 12 mm in length) within 20 min postirradiation with various doses of X rays. Groups consisted of 10–21 mice per experimental group and experiments were repeated 2–5 times. Using the Mantel-Haenzel method on 30-day survival data, a significant difference between sham cut and cut groups was found at all radiation doses except 6.0 Gy, P = 0.15. For 6.2 Gy, P < 0.0001; 6.5 Gy, P = 0.0219; 6.7 Gy, P = 0.0199; 6.8 Gy, P < 0.0001, 7.1 Gy, P = 0.0017.