Abstract
Hong Shan Capsule (HSC), a crude drug of 11 medicinal herbs, was used in clinical practice for the treatment of radiation injuries in China. In this study, we investigated its protection in rats against acute lethal total-body irradiation (TBI). Pre-administration of HSC reduced the radiation sickness characteristics, while increasing the 30-day survival of the irradiated rats. Administration of HSC also reduced the radiation sickness characteristics and increased the 30-day survival of mice after exposure to lethal TBI. Ultrastructural observation illustrated that the pretreatment of rats with HSC significantly attenuated the TBI-induced morphological changes in the different organs of irradiated rats. Gene expression profiles revealed the dramatic effect of HSC on alterations of gene expression caused by lethal TBI. Pretreatment with HSC prevented differential expression of 66% (1398 genes) of 2126 genes differentially expressed in response to TBI. Pathway enrichment analysis indicated that these genes were mainly involved in a total of 32 pathways, such as pathways in cancer and the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. Our analysis indicated that the pretreatment of rats with HSC modulated these pathways induced by lethal TBI, such as multiple MAPK pathways, suggesting that pretreatment with HSC might provide protective effects on lethal TBI mainly or partially through the modulation of these pathways. Our data suggest that HSC has the potential to be used as an effective therapeutic or radio-protective agent to minimize irradiation damage.
Highlights
Radiation toxicity is a kind of physical stress that humans risk in events such as nuclear pollution, radiation therapy for cancer, and space flights [1,2,3]
Gene expression profiles revealed a dramatic effect of Hong Shan Capsule (HSC) on alterations of gene expression caused by lethal total-body irradiation (TBI)
HSC administration prior to radiation attenuated tissue damage induced by lethal TBI
Summary
Radiation toxicity is a kind of physical stress that humans risk in events such as nuclear pollution, radiation therapy for cancer, and space flights [1,2,3]. Several compounds have been reported to offer the potential for radiation protection, but most of them are not suitable for clinical application due to toxicity and poor specificity [4,5,6]. This warrants the development of suitable radio-protective agents with minimum toxicity that can be used under occupational as well as clinical conditions. A number of medicinal plants and their extracts evaluated for the radio-protective efficacy have shown protective effects against radiation damage [7]. We mainly investigated its protective effects against lethal TBI in Wistar rats
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
