Whole Body Hyperthermia in Mice Confers Delayed Radioprotection at Cellular and Tissue Levels: Inducible Heat Shock Proteins as Endogenous Radioprotectors

It was previously shown on heat shock protein (Hsp)-over expressing cell lines that the increased intracellular content of Hsp 70 or Hsp27 is associated with the elevated radioresistance. However, it was so far unknown whether the in vivo Fsp induction by stressful preconditioning can confer radioprotection at the tissue and cellular levels. In the present study, we examined how the in vivo up-regulation of the Hsp expression in response to mild whole body hyperthermia (42 degrees C, 10 min) in mice changes susceptibility of their bone marrow stem cells and thymocytes to subsequent gamma-irradiation. to assess the expectable contribution of stress-inducible Hsp we used injections with Quercetin, a flavonoid inhibiting the stress-responsive Hsp induction. The results demonstrate that the bone marrow stem cells and thymocytes from heat-preconditioned mice were more radioresistant than those from the non-preconditioned animals. the radioprotection was well manifested if mice or their isolated thymocytes were irradiated 18-25 h after the in vivo hyperthermia. This delayed radioprotection resulting from the heat preconditioning was suppressed in Quercetin-injected mice. The revealed correlation between the intracellular Hsp accumulation and the acquired Quercetin-sensitive radioprotection suggests a beneficial role of Hsps as of endogenous radioprotectors. Our finding discovers new ways for artificial modulation of effects of irradiation on target cells via manipulating the Hsp expression. (Author) 17 refs