Dietary Antioxidants Protect Hematopoietic Cells and Improve Animal Survival after Total-Body Irradiation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a dietary supplement consisting of Lselenomethionine, vitamin C, vitamin E succinate, α-lipoic acid and N-acetyl cysteine could improve the survival of mice after total-body irradiation. Antioxidants significantly increased the 30-day survival of mice after exposure to a potentially lethal dose of X rays when given prior to or after animal irradiation. Pretreatment of animals with antioxidants resulted in significantly higher total white blood cell and neutrophil counts in peripheral blood at 4 and 24 h after 1 Gy and 8 Gy. Antioxidants were effective in preventing peripheral lymphopenia only after low-dose irradiation. Antioxidant supplementation was also associated with increased bone marrow cell counts after irradiation. Supplementation with antioxidants was associated with increased Bcl2 and decreased Bax, caspase 9 and TGF-β1 mRNA expression in the bone marrow after irradiation. Maintenance of the antioxidant diet was associated with improved recovery of the bone marrow after sublethal or potentially lethal irradiation. Taken together, oral supplementation with antioxidants appears to be an effective approach for radioprotection of hematopoietic cells and improvement of animal survival, and modulation of apoptosis is implicated as a mechanism for the radioprotection of the hematopoietic system by antioxidants.

Mechanism of radioprotection by δ-tocotrienol: pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and modulation of signalling pathways

“…Significant reduction in haematological indices following irradiation reported here is consistent with earlier reports on radiation-induced ablation of bone marrow [26,27]. Irradiation severely depleted reticulocytes, WBCs, neutrophils, lymphocytes, platelets and haematocrit counts, an effect that persisted 21-28 days after exposure.…”

Investigation of cytotoxic and mutagenic effects of Malpighia glabra L. (barbados cherry) fruit pulp and vitamin C on plant and animal test systems

“…Therefore, although many studies have demonstrated the antimutagenic activity of ascorbic acid (CAI; KOROPATNICK; CHERIAN, 2001;ALY;DONYA, 2003;ORTMANN et al, 2004;JAGETIA;RAJANIKANT;RAO, 2007;MOZDARANI;GHORAEIAN, 2008;WAMBI et al, 2008;ASSAYED;KHALAF;SALEM, 2010), in some cases, it can act as a co-mutagenic leading to the generation of oxygen radicals that induce sister chromatid exchanges and other cytogenetic damage (KONAPACKA; WIDEL; REZESZOWSKA-WOLNY, 1998;KAYA et al, 2002).…”

The effects of antioxidants on gene expression following gamma-radiation (GR) and proton radiation (PR) in mice in vivo

“…11,12 Furthermore, dietary AOX supplementation prior to or after exposure to GR TBI was an effective countermeasure in limiting hematopoietic cell depletion, promoting hematopoietic cell recovery, and ultimately, improving mice survival. 1 Proton radiation (PR) has generated interest for its capacity to selectively increase radiation dose to the tumor while lowering the dose to surrounding normal tissues. In a subsequent experiment, the same dietary AOX supplementation also significantly improved 30-day survival of mice when administered after PR TBI.…”