Article
Effects of low dose heavy ion beams pre-irradiation on DNA damage and cell cycle progression in mice liver
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Published: | September 24, 2009 |
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Background: A number of studies demonstrated that low dose radiation could enhance the immune functions and induce the adaptive response in mice.On the basis of this we further investigated the effects of low dose 12C6+ ions pre-irradiation on DNA damage and cell cycle progression in mice liver and its underlying mechanisms.
Material and methods: The Kun-Ming strain mice were whole-body equably pre-irradiated with 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.25 and 0.5Gy of carbon ions at a dose rate about 0.2Gy/min respectively. 4h later, the mice were irradiated with 4Gy of 12C6+ ions at the same means. At 8h after irradiation, the cell cycles of liver cells were analyzed by FACS, and the degree of DNA damage was measured by single cell gel electrophoresis through the determination of cells frequency with tail moment and tail lengths.
Results: The results indicated that compared with irradiation control group of 4 Gy, the percentages of cells after pre-exposure with low-dose 12C6+ ions at G0/G1-phase and G2/M-stage on liver decreased significantly, whereas the percentages of S-phase cells increased. Furthermore, cell percentage with tail and tail length induced by 12C6+ ion beams irradiation decreased evidently ( P<0.01, # # P<0.01, P<0.05, # P<0.05), especially the 0.1Gy pre-exposure group(P<0.01).
Conclusion: Taken together, these results suggest that pre-exposure with low-dose heavy ions could induce the adaptive response in liver cells of mice, alleviate the G0/G1 and G2/M phase arrest and reduce the DNA damages remarkably induced by 12C6+ ion beams.