The first part of the review outlines the classical interpretation of radiation damage to normal organs based on dose-response relationships for clonogenic cell survival and tissue kinetics. Proliferative organization of critical cell lineages (three-compartmental or H-type and one-compartmental or F-type) is considered as an additional determinant in the development of overt radiation injury. This leads to testable predictions concerned with divergent outcomes of stimulation of cell proliferation after radiation exposure using polypeptide growth factors. The prediction of favourable effects of such stimulation in H-type lineages is borne out by recent experiments on treatment with cytokines of radiation-induced haemopoietic insufficiency. The second prediction of deleterious effects of proliferative stimulation in recently, heavily irradiated F-type cell lineages remains to be verified or refuted.