Magnesium superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) plasmid/liposome pulmonary radioprotective gene therapy: Modulation of irradiation-induced mRNA for IL-I, TNF-α, and TGF-β correlates with delay of organizing alveolitis/fibrosis

Radiation pneumonitis remains a critical dose-limiting toxicity of total body irradiation (TBI) for use in bone marrow transplantation. The acute and chronic phases of radiation damage in the mouse lung have been shown to correlate with mouse strain genotype and are dependent on fraction size, total dose, and total lung volume. Our prior studies demonstrated effective prevention of irradiation-induced lung damage and improved survival in C57BL/6J mice by MnSOD plasmid/liposome gene therapy. In the present studies, we investigated the kinetics of irradiation-induced upregulation of mRNA for acute phase cytokines interleukin (IL)-1 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and fibrosis-associated transforming growth factor (TGF)-β and isoforms (TGF-β1, TGF-β2 and TGF-β3) in 2000 cGy whole-lung irradiated C57BL/6J mice, a strain known to develop dose and volume-dependent organizing alveolitis/fibrosis. The results demonstrate increase in mRNA for IL-1 between days 1 and 14 after irradiation with return to baseline levels out to 120 days. TNF-α mRNA levels were not initially elevated but increased between 80 and 100 days and then decreased by 120 days. The mRNA levels for TGF-β1 demonstrated an initial increase within the first 14 days after total lung irradiation with a decrease to baseline levels out to 100 days. Then, in striking contrast to the other two cytokines, an increase in TGF-β2 mRNA occurred at around 120 days and correlated with the detection of organizing alveolitis/radiation fibrosis and mortality. These results are consistent with a two-phase mechanism in the molecular pathology of irradiation lung injury, in which IL-1 cytokine mRNA levels correlated with the acute pneumonitis phase and delayed elevation of TNF-α (80-100 days), TGF-β1 (100 days), and TGF-β2 (120 days) were associated with the fibrosis phase. Insight into the cell-specific and tissue-specific molecular mechanisms of ionizing irradiation induction of mRNA for pulmonary cytokines may provide new strategies for treatment of radiation pneumonitis in TBI patients.