Prophylactically Feeding Manganese to Drosophila Confers Sex-Specific Protection from Acute Ionizing Radiation Independent of MnSOD2 Levels.

ABSTRACT: Ionizing radiation is a health threat to many, including warfighters, radiological emergency responders, radiotherapy patients, and astronauts. Despite this, no FDA-approved prophylactic medical countermeasures exist to attenuate the symptoms that occur from radiation exposure. Manganese has recently been shown to be critical for radioresistance in a wide range of organisms. In this study, we designed a stringent feeding method to test the prophylactic effects of dietary manganese on Drosophila's lifespan before exposure to acute irradiation. We found that male flies have substantially lower radioresistance than females, but feeding with low doses of MnCl₂ before acute irradiation exposure extends male survival to that of females. Whole animal electron paramagnetic resona

SUBMITTER: Volpe RP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11851552 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature