Open Access

ARTICLE

Induction of adaptive response in utero by ionizing radiation: A radiation quality dependent phenomenon

by BING WANG^*, KAORU TANAKA, KOUICHI MARUYAMA, YASUHARA NINOMIYA, TAKANORI KATSUBE, MITSURU NENOI^*

National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology, Chiba, 263-8555, Japan

* Corresponding Authors: Bing Wang, ; Mitsuru Nenoi,

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Reproductive Health and Embryonic Development)

BIOCELL 2022, 46(10), 2315-2325. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2022.021161

Received 30 December 2021; Accepted 14 February 2022; Issue published 13 June 2022

Abstract

Investigation on possible induction of adaptive response (AR) by high-liner energy transfer (LET) particle radiation for protection against low-LET photon radiation-induced detrimental effects has not yet been performed in utero. This study verified if an AR could be induced by high-LET particle radiation from accelerated heavy ions against low-LET X-ray radiation-induced detrimental effects on fetal mice. Total body irradiation of pregnant C57BL/6J mice were performed by delivering a priming dose ranging from 10 mGy to 320 mGy of particle radiation on gestation day 11 followed one day later by a challenge dose at 3500 mGy from X-ray radiation. The monoenergetic beams of carbon, silicon and iron with the LET values of about 15, 55, and 200 KeV/μm, respectively, were examined. Significant suppression by the priming radiation of the detrimental effects (fetal death, malformation, or low body weight) was used as the endpoints for judgment of a successful AR induction on gestation day 18. Existence of AR was not observed. On the other hand, the priming dose of high-LET particle radiation, in some cases, even increased the detrimental effects induced by the challenge dose from low-LET X-ray radiation. Although existence of AR induced by high-LET radiation in cultured mammalian cells in vitro and in certain tissues of laboratory mice in vivo was demonstrated, the present study did not suggest that low dose of high-LET particle radiation could induce an AR in fetal mice in utero under the setup of our experimental system.

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