title: Effect of Very Low Dose Fast Neutrons on the DNA of Rats' Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells and Leukocytes.
abstract: The effect of very low dose fast neutrons on the chromatin and DNA of rats' peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and leukocytes has been studied in the present work using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and single-cell gel electrophoresis (comet assay). Fourteen female Wistar rats were used; seven were irradiated with neutrons of 0.9 cGy (Am-Be, 0.02 cGy h(-1)), and seven others were used as control. Second derivative and curve fitting were used to analyze the FTIR spectra. In addition, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was used to classify the group spectra. Meanwhile, the tail moment and percentage of DNA in the tail were used as indicators to sense the breaking and the level of damage in DNA. The analysis of FTIR spectra of the PBMC of the irradiated group revealed a marked increase in the area of phosphodiesters of nucleic acids and the area ratios of RNA/DNA and phosphodiesters/carbohydrates. A sharp significant increase and decrease in the areas of RNA and DNA ribose were recorded, respectively. In the irradiated group, leukocytes with different tail lengths were observed. The distributions of tail moments and the percentage of DNA in the tail of irradiated groups were heterogeneous. The mean value of the percentages of DNA in the tail at 0.5 h post-irradiation represented low-level damage in the DNA. Therefore, one can conclude that very low dose fast neutrons might cause changes in the DNA of PBMC at the submolecular level. It could cause low-level damage, double-strand break, and chromatin fragmentation of DNA of leukocytes.
authors.affiliation: *Physics Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 20589, KSA; †Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21121, Egypt; ‡Physics Department, Thamar University, Thamar, Yemen; §King Fahd Medical Research Centre, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, KSA; **Biology Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 20589, KSA; ††Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 20589, KSA; ‡‡Spectroscopy Department, Physics Division, National Research Center, Cairo 12311, Egypt.
authors.forename: Sherif S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Nafee
authors.forename: Abdu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saeed
authors.forename: Salem A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Shaheen
authors.forename: Sufian M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: El Assouli
authors.forename: M-Zaki
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: El Assouli
authors.forename: Gehan A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Raouf
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020552:Comet Assay / Q000379:methods*; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis* / Q000528:radiation effects; D004249:DNA Damage / Q000528:radiation effects*; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D005214:Fast Neutrons; D005260:Female; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000528:radiation effects; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000166:cytology* / Q000528:radiation effects; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: D004247:DNA