Title: Expression of IFNg and TGFb1 genes can distinguish radiation workers from the normal population

Authors: Reza Fardid; Mohammad Taghi Bahreyni-Toossi; Abdolrahim Rezaee; Ariane Sadr-nabavi; Houshang Rafatpanah

Addresses: Department of Radiology, School of Paramedical Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran; Medical Physics Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran ' Medical Physics Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran ' Immunology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran ' Medical Genetic Department, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran ' Inflammation and Inflammatory Diseases Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract: Ionising radiation can cause different forms of DNA damage in living cells. Changes in biomarkers due to exposure to ionising radiation can be an appropriate tool for the immediate recognition of individuals exposed to radiation after a radiological accident or nuclear disaster. QPCR technique, as an approved method, was used for analysing the expression levels of sensitive genes following radiation exposure. Gene expression studies were performed on a group of 36 radiation workers and 36 matched-normal people without a history of radiation exposure. Mean gene expression values for control and irradiated groups were compared. There was significant difference between the mean gene expression of IFNg (p < 0.05), also significant difference was observed between the gene expression of TGFb1 (p < 0.05) in normal and irradiated groups. The logistic regression model is able to correctly identify 72.2% of irradiated samples (sensitivity) and 80.6% of normal samples (specificity).

Keywords: gene expression; radiation workers; biological dosimetry; immune system; IFNg genes; TGFb1 genes; normal population; ionising radiation; DNA damage; biomarkers; radiation exposure; polymerase chain reaction; quantitative real-time PCR; QPCR.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLR.2014.068282

International Journal of Low Radiation, 2014 Vol.9 No.5/6, pp.396 - 408

Received: 04 Jun 2014
Accepted: 18 Feb 2015
Published online: 27 Mar 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article