Dose and dose rate effects of irradiation on blood count and cytokine assay in mice

The possible role of exposure to radiation as a risk factor for human health has been of increasing public concern in the series of explosions at earthquake damaged nuclear reactors on the Japan. Current events throughout the world underscore the growing threat of different forms of accidental exposure to radiation including nuclear accidents, atomic weapons use and testing, and the side effects of cancer therapy. A large range of dose rates of ionizing radiations could be encountered in accidental radiation situations. Nevertheless, most of the studies related to radiation effects have only examined a high dose rate. In this study, we investigated the blood count and the cytokine levels in the serum of mice exposed to a high or low dose rate of radiation. In this study, the precise molecular mechanism underlying the low dose rate of radiation remains unclear, but differential hematopoietic effects of radiation exposed at a high dose rate versus low dose rate were observed using the number of peripheral blood count and serum cytokines. These data suggest that chronic low dose rate exposure caused a stimulation of heamatopoietic system occurrence, unlike those observed after higher dose rate exposure. Our data suggest that the dose rate, rather than the total dose, may be more critical in causing damage to the cellular hematopoietic compartments of the body