The influence of very small doses of alpha radiation on the stability of erythrocytes

Abstract

Our aim was to study the influence of low doses (0.2-4 μGy) of α radiation on the stability of human erythrocytes isolated from healthy and diabetic erythrocytes. Absorption spectroscopy was used to measure the level of red blood cell (RBC) hemolysis, along with Mössbauer spectroscopy, which is a highly specific method suited to monitoring various hemoglobin forms. States of hemoglobin are sensitive to a homeostatic imbalance in red blood cells. Changes in the membrane skeleton organization of irradiated erythrocytes isolated from healthy donors were studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Hemolysis, in healthy red blood cells, showed characteristic discontinuities, depending on the α particle flux and the exposure time to the low doses applied. This phenomenon was not observed in severe diabetic cases, which could be a result of modified protein-lipid-sugar complexes and the attenuation/absence of some antioxidative enzymatic processes in their RBC membranes. Similar effects were also observed for red blood cells treated with low doses of neutron and γ-radiation. AFM measurements demonstrated a reorganization of the RBC membrane skeleton network depending on the time of RBC exposure to α radiation. This suggests that the changes in the activity of the acute defense processes against free radicals which are activated within the erythrocyte membrane irradiated with α-particles could additionally be up- or down regulated by modifications to the membrane-skeleton network. However, even the highest dose of α radiation applied in these studies did not cause any significant changes in the ability of hemoglobin to transport oxygen. Microsc. Res. Tech. 80:131-143, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Whole Transcriptome Analysis of Notochord-Derived Cells during Embryonic Formation of the Nucleus Pulposus

“…TGF-β signaling is critical for embryonic formation of both the NP and AF 48 , 55 , 56 . In mice where Tgfbr2 is specifically removed from type II collagen expressing cells, the NPs that form are abnormally small suggesting that TGF-β signaling is required to drive NP growth 55 .…”

The influence of very small doses of alpha radiation on the stability of erythrocytes

“…We have read with interest the article by Kaczmarska et al () entitled “The influence of very small doses of alpha radiation on the stability of erythrocytes” that is published in the Microscopy Research and Technique 2016; 1–13. Kaczmarska et al in their article investigated the influence of low doses of a radiation on the stability of human erythrocytes isolated from healthy and diabetic patients.…”