A report is presented on the advantages of the rapid interphase chromosome assay (RICA) and the difficulties that may be met while implementing this method for application in biological dosimetry. The RICA test can be applied on unstimulated human lymphocytes; this is an advantage in comparison with the dicentric chromosomes or micronucleus tests. In the former two tests, stimulated lymphocytes are examined and hence, 48 h more are needed to obtain cells traversing the cell cycle. Due to the use of unstimulated nondividing cells, higher numbers of cells are available for RICA analysis than for dicentric chromosomes or micronuclei tests. Moreover, the method can be applied after exposure to ionizing radiation doses in excess of 5 Gy. Such doses cause a signifi cant cell cycle delay or result in the loss of G2 phase and mitotic cells because of apoptosis. Therefore, the traditional biodosimetry based on the evaluation of the incidence of damage to chromosomes is very difficult to carry out. This is due to the lack of an adequate number of mitotic cells for analysis. RICA is free of this disadvantage. An automatic microscope can be used to retrieve cell images; automatic image analysis can also be used.
We compared three methods usually applied in biological dosimetry for estimation of radiation-induced DNA damage in human T and B lymphocytes: alkaline comet assay, micronucleus (MN) test and formation of histone gamma-H2AX foci. Human peripheral blood lymphocytes were fractionated using T cells and B cells isolation kits. Cells were irradiated with doses in the range of 0-1 Gy of X-rays. Induction of DNA damage was assessed by the standard alkaline comet assay, MN test and histone gammaH2AX foci immunofluorescence assay. Notwithstanding different end-points measured by the applied methods, all tests revealed a similar induction of DNA damage in B lymphocytes as compared with T lymphocytes. The results indicated that all three tests detect DNA damage with similar sensitivity, the lowest dose being approximately 0.3 Gy. The difference between irradiated and control cells was expressed as the ratio of the value obtained for irradiated cells (1 Gy) to that for control cells. The highest ratio was obtained for formation of gammaH2AX foci and was 6.2 for T and 13.8 for B lymphocytes, whereas those for comet assay and micronucleus test were 3.5; 3.6 and 5.6; 4.8, respectively.
JavaScript jest wyłączony w Twojej przeglądarce internetowej. Włącz go, a następnie odśwież stronę, aby móc w pełni z niej korzystać.