Ultra high dose rate (35 Gy/sec) radiation does not spare the normal tissue in cardiac and splenic models of lymphopenia and gastrointestinal syndrome

Bhanu Prasad Venkatesulu, Amrish Sharma, Julianne M. Pollard-Larkin, Ramaswamy Sadagopan, Jessica Symons, Shinya Neri, Pankaj K. Singh, Ramesh Tailor, Steven H. Lin, Sunil Krishnan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

62 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recent reports have shown that very high dose rate radiation (35–100 Gy/second) referred to as FLASH tends to spare the normal tissues while retaining the therapeutic effect on tumor. We undertook a series of experiments to assess if ultra-high dose rate of 35 Gy/second can spare the immune system in models of radiation induced lymphopenia. We compared the tumoricidal potency of ultra-high dose rate and conventional dose rate radiation using a classical clonogenic assay in murine pancreatic cancer cell lines. We also assessed the lymphocyte sparing potential in cardiac and splenic irradiation models of lymphopenia and assessed the severity of radiation-induced gastrointestinal toxicity triggered by the two dose rate regimes in vivo. Ultra-high dose rate irradiation more potently induces clonogenic cell death than conventional dose rate irradiation with a dose enhancement factor at 10% survival (DEF10) of 1.310 and 1.365 for KPC and Panc02 cell lines, respectively. Ultra-high dose rate was equally potent in depleting CD3, CD4, CD8, and CD19 lymphocyte populations in both cardiac and splenic irradiation models of lymphopenia. Radiation-induced gastrointestinal toxicity was more pronounced and mouse survival (7 days vs. 15 days, p = 0.0001) was inferior in the ultra-high dose rate arm compared to conventional dose rate arm. These results suggest that, contrary to published data in other models of radiation-induced acute and chronic toxicity, dose rates of 35 Gy/s do not protect mice from the detrimental side effects of irradiation in our models of cardiac and splenic radiation-induced lymphopenia or gastrointestinal mucosal injury.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number17180
JournalScientific reports
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2019

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

MD Anderson CCSG core facilities

  • Advanced Technology Genomics Core
  • Cytogenetics and Cell Authentication Core
  • Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Facility
  • Research Animal Support Facility

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