Project description:Back skin from 8-10 weeks male mice was plucked to induce actively growing hair follicles. After 9 days, the back skin was irradiated with 5Gy ionizing radiation. Skin samples were collected for CHIP-seq analysis using a p53 antibody and H3K4me3 antibody. We compared wild type and Krt17 knock out mice for their epigenetic regulation of gene expression change in response to ionizing radiation
Project description:Skin samples from back region and footpads were analyzed in 8-10 week old mice. For back skin, the hair was plucked in order to induce active growing phase(anagen). After 9 days, the mice were irradiated for 5Gy IR. Krt17 knock out, p53 knock out, and wild type mice were compared. Samples were taken at time 0 (control), 6h, and 24h post-irradiation. For footpad skin, the mice were irradiated for 40 Gy IR. Krt17 knock out and wild type mice were compared. Samples were taken at time 0 (control), 3 d, 6 d, 9 d post-irradiation.
Project description:Ionizing radiation (IR) – induced salivary gland damage is a common adverse effect in radiotherapy for patients with head and neck cancers. Currently, there is no effective treatment for the resulting salivary gland hypofunction and xerostomia (dry mouth). Here we profiled the acute gene expression change in the mouse submandibular salivary gland, and defined its damage response patterns at the transcriptome level.
Project description:Effects of accidental and prolonged radiation exposure on the human germline remain a topic of medical interest. Transgenerational signatures of ionizing radiation exposure are primarily implicated to be clustered de-novo mutations (cDNMs, multiple de-novo mutations within 20bp). We sequenced the whole genome of 110 children from 70 families (Radar cohort). The father in this cohort were exposed to 0-353mSv of ionizing radiation and serve as exposed samples.
Project description:<p>Long-term low-dose ionizing radiation (LLIR) widely exists in human life and has been confirmed to have potential pathogenic effects on cancer and cardiovascular diseases. However, it is technically and ethically unfeasible to explore LLIR-induced phenotypic changes in the human cohort, leading to slow progress in revealing the pathogenesis of LLIR. In this work, we recruited 32 radiation workers and 18 healthy non-radiation workers from the same city with the same eating habits for radiation damage evaluation and metabolomics profiling. It was found that clear metabolic phenotypic differences existed between LLIR and non-LLIR exposed participants. Moreover, LLIR exposed workers can be further divided into 2 types of metabolic phenotypes, corresponding to high and low damage types, respectively. 3-hydroxypropanoate and glycolaldehyde were identified as sensitive indicators to radiation damage, which specific response to the chromosomal aberration of workers and may be potential monitoring markers for LLIR protection. Taurine metabolism-related pathways were identified as the main differential metabolic pathway under LLIR inducing, which had been confirmed to have a response to acute or chronic radiation exposure. We expect our study can be helpful to LLIR damage monitoring and symptomatic intervention in the future.</p>
Project description:Tardigrades can survive remarkable doses of ionizing radiation, up to about 1000 times the lethal dose for humans. How they do so is incompletely understood. We found that the tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris suffers DNA damage upon gamma irradiation, but damage is repaired. We show that tardigrades have a specific and robust response to ionizing radiation: irradiation induces a rapid and dramatic upregulation of many DNA repair genes. By expressing tardigrade genes in bacteria, we validate that increased expression of some repair genes can suffice to increase radiation tolerance. We show that at least one such gene is necessary for tardigrade radiation tolerance. Tardigrades’ ability to sense ionizing radiation and massively upregulate specific DNA repair pathway genes may represent an evolved solution for maintaining DNA integrity.
Project description:Tardigrades can survive remarkable doses of ionizing radiation, up to about 1000 times the lethal dose for humans. How they do so is incompletely understood. We found that the tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris suffers DNA damage upon gamma irradiation, but damage is repaired. We show that this tardigrade has a specific and robust response to ionizing radiation: irradiation induces a rapid upregulation of many DNA repair genes. This upregulation is unexpectedly extreme, making some DNA repair transcripts among the most abundant transcripts in the animal. By expressing tardigrade genes in bacteria, we validate that increased expression of some repair genes can suffice to increase radiation tolerance. We show that at least one such gene is important for tardigrade radiation tolerance. We hypothesize that tardigrades’ ability to sense ionizing radiation and massively upregulate specific DNA repair pathway genes may represent an evolved solution for maintaining DNA integrity.
Project description:Mechanistic understanding of how ionizing radiation induces type I interferon signaling and how to amplify this signaling module should help to maximize the efficacy of radiotherapy. In the current study, we report that inhibitors of the DNA damage response kinase ATR can significantly potentiate ionizing radiation-induced innate immune responses. Using a series of mammalian knockout cell lines, we demonstrate that, surprisingly, both the cGAS/STING-dependent DNA-sensing pathway and the MAVS-dependent RNA-sensing pathway are responsible for type I interferon signaling induced by ionizing radiation in the presence or absence of ATR inhibitors. The relative contributions of these two pathways in type I interferon signaling depend on cell type and/or genetic background. We propose that DNA damage-elicited double-strand DNA breaks releases DNA fragments, which may either activate the cGAS/STING-dependent pathway or-especially in the case of AT-rich DNA sequences-be transcribed and initiate MAVS-dependent RNA sensing and signaling. Together, our results suggest the involvement of two distinct pathways in type I interferon signaling upon DNA damage. Moreover, radiation plus ATR inhibition may be a promising new combination therapy against cancer.