title: Cellular monitoring of the nuclear factor kappaB pathway for assessment of space environmental radiation.
abstract: A screening assay for the detection of NF-kappaB-dependent gene induction using the destabilized variant of the reporter protein enhanced green fluorescent protein (d2EGFP) is used for assessing the biological effects of accelerated heavy ions as a model of space environmental radiation conditions. The time course of d2EGFP expression and therefore of activation of NF-kappaB-dependent gene expression was measured after treatment with TNFA or after heavy-ion exposure using flow cytometry. The reported experiments clearly show that accelerated argon ions (95 MeV/nucleon, LET 230 keV/microm) induce the NF-kappaB pathway at low particle densities (1-2 particle hits per nucleus), which result in as few as 5-50 induced DSBs per cell.
authors.affiliation: German Aerospace Centre (DLR), Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Linder Höhe, D-51147 Köln, Germany. christa.baumstark-khan@dlr.de
authors.forename: Christa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baumstark-Khan
authors.forename: Christine E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Hellweg
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arenz
authors.forename: Matthias M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Meier
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D003359:Cosmic Radiation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004249:DNA Damage; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D020450:Heavy Ions / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000528:radiation effects*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000528:radiation effects
chemical_list: D016328:NF-kappa B