Response of two protective agents to acute injury induced by 12C6+ ions in mouse liver

The present study was to evaluate the effect and mechanism of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and Acetyl-L-Carnitine hydrochloride (ALCAR) against 12C6+ ion beams on acute injury in the mouse liver. Pretreated with NAC (100 mg/kg) and ALCAR (100 mg/kg), Kun-Ming mice were exposed to whole-body irradiation with the dose of 4 Gy. Mice were killed 2 h after irradiation, and then the liver tissues were quickly removed. TAC was measured by using chemical reagent kids, and DNA-single strand breaks were determined by single cell gel electrophoresis, and the percentage of cell apoptosis were assayed by flow cytometry method. The results showed that NAC and ALCAR pretreatment significantly enhanced TAC (P<0.001), alleviated DNA-single strand breaks (P<0.001) and cell apoptosis (P<0.001) of the liver tissues. Moreover, ALCAR-mediated radioprotection induced by 12C6+ ions is stronger than that of NAC (P<0.05). The data suggests that NAC and ALCAR both can ameliorate acute injury caused by 12C6+ ions in mice. In this study, NAC and ALCAR exert their radioprotective effect by virtue of resisting oxidative stress, enhancing TAC, alleviating DNA-single strand breaks as well as cell apoptosis. Furthermore, the data imply that NAC and ALCAR may be suitable and promising as radioprotective drug against carbon heavy ions. (authors)