Ionizing radiation (IR), along with being an important diagnostic and treatment
modality, is a potent tumor-causing agent, and the risk of secondary radiation
treatment-related cancers is a growing clinical problem. Now some studies propose to
link secondary radiation-induced cancers to an enigmatic phenomenon of bystander
effects, whereby the exposed cells send signal damage and distress to their naïve
neighbors and result in genome destabilization and carcinogenesis. Yet, no data
existed on the bystander effects in an organ other than an exposed one. With this in
mind, we focused on the analysis of existence and mechanisms of radiation-induced
bystander effects in vivo. We have found that bystander effects occur in vivo in
distant skin and spleen following half-body or cranial irradiation. These bystander
effects resulted in elevated DNA damage, profound dysregulation of epigenetic
machinery, and pronounced alterations in apoptosis, proliferation and gene
expression. Bystander effects also exhibited persistency and sex specificity. The
results obtained while using the animal model systems can potentially be extrapolated
to different animals and humans. / xiii, 208 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:ALU.w.uleth.ca/dspace#10133/664 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Koturbash, Igor, University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science |
| Contributors | Kovalchuk, Olga |
| Publisher | Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Arts and Science, 2008, Arts and Science, Department of Biological Sciences |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Relation | Thesis (University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science) |
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