The whole brain of SD rats was irradiated by the single dose of 2, 10, or 30Gy. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used for the content measurement of myelin basic protein (MBP) in telencephalon tissue at 1 week, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months after irradiation. Both the Luxol fast blue staining with image analysis and the electron microscope were used to investigate the histomorphologic and ultrastructural characteristics of demyelination. The MBP content of telencephalon tissue in control rats were 78-82µg/mL, there were no difference in all the 2Gy irradiated, 1 week and 1 month after 10 to 30Gy irradiated groups. But at 3 and 6 months after 10Gy and 30Gy irradiated rats, there MBP content were in 50-62µg/mL level, which were a significant decrease compared with the control groups (,p,<,0.01). Typical demyelination in corpus callosum of rats was observed in 30Gy irradiation after 6 months, but no evidence of demyelination was seen in all the other rats. The ultra-structural changes of myelin and oligodendrocytes were detected in 10Gy and 30Gy exposure after 1 to 6 months observed by electron microscope. All the demyelination changes were seen correlated with the dosage and duration after irradiation. These findings indicate that the radiation-related molecular and pathological characteristic changes of demyelination can be assessed in 3 to 6 months after single 10Gy to 30Gy whole-brain irradiation in SD rats.