title: Effects of acute low doses of gamma-radiation on erythrocytes membrane.
abstract: It is believed that any dose of ionizing radiation may damage cells and that the mutated cells could develop into cancer cells. Additionally, results of research performed over the past century on the effects of low doses of ionizing radiation on biological organisms show beneficial health effects, called hormesis. Much less is known about the cellular response to low doses of ionizing radiation, such as those typical for medical diagnostic procedures, normal occupational exposures or cosmic-ray exposures at flight altitudes. Extrapolating from the effects observed at higher doses to predict changes in cells after low-dose exposure is problematic. We examined the biological effects of low doses (0.01-0.3 Gy) of γ-radiation on the membrane characteristics of erythrocytes of albino rats and carried out osmotic fragility tests and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Our results indicate that the lowest three doses in the investigated radiation range, i.e., 0.01, 0.025 and 0.05 Gy, resulted in positive effects on the erythrocyte membranes, while a dose of 0.1 Gy appeared to represent the limiting threshold dose of those positive effects. Doses higher than 0.1 Gy were associated with the denaturation of erythrocyte proteins.
authors.affiliation: Biophysics and Laser Science Unit, Research Institute of Ophthalmology, P.O. Box: 90, Giza, Egypt. sheri_sm@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Sherif S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Mahmoud
authors.forename: Eman
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: El-Sakhawy
authors.forename: Eman S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Abdel-Fatah
authors.forename: Adel M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Kelany
authors.forename: Rizk M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Rizk
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004910:Erythrocyte Membrane / Q000378:metabolism / Q000528:radiation effects*; D005260:Female; D005720:Gamma Rays; D007038:Hypotonic Solutions; D008297:Male; D009996:Osmotic Fragility / Q000528:radiation effects; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: D007038:Hypotonic Solutions