Effect of heme oxygenase-1 on radiation-induced skin injury

Abstract

Objective To investigate the effect of heme oxygenase-1 ( HO-1 ) on the acute radiation-induced skin injury by gene transfer.Methods Thirty-three male SD rats were randomly divided into three groups as PBS-injected group,Ad-EGFP-injeeted group and Ad-HO-1-injected group ( n =11 ).In each group,three rats were used for determining the expression of target gene and the other rats were irradiated on the buttock skin with 40 Gy electron beam generated by a linear accelerator.Immediately after irradiation,rats were administered with a subcutaneous injection of PBS,Ad-EGFP or Ad-HO-1,respectively.Subsequently,the skin reactions were measured twice a week using the semi-quantitative skin injury scale.Results The strong positive expression of HO-1 was observed in subcutaneous dermal tissue after injection of Ad-HO-1.Compared to the PBS-injected group or the Ad-EGFP-injected group,a significant mitigation of skin injury was observed in Ad-HO-1-injected mice 14 d after irradiation (q =0.000-0.030,P ＜ 0.05 ).Conclusions HO-1 could significantly mitigate radiation-induced acute skin injury and Ad-HO-1 could be used to treat radiation-induced skin injury. Key words: Heme oxygenase; Adenovirus; Irradiation-induced skin injury; Gene therapy