Early Brain Response to Low-Dose Radiation Exposure Involves Molecular Networks and Pathways Associated with Cognitive Functions, Advanced Aging and Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract Lowe, X. R., Bhattacharya, S., Marchetti, F. and Wyrobek, A. J. Early Brain Response to Low-Dose Radiation Exposure Involves Molecular Networks and Pathways Associated with Cognitive Functions, Advanced Aging and Alzheimer's Disease. Radiat. Res. 171, 53–65 (2009). Understanding the cognitive and behavioral consequences of brain exposures to low-dose ionizing radiation has broad relevance for health risks from medical radiation diagnostic procedures, radiotherapy and environmental nuclear contamination as well as for Earth-orbit and space missions. Analyses of transcriptome profiles of mouse brain tissue after whole-body irradiation showed that low-dose exposures (10 cGy) induced genes not affected by high-dose radiation (2 Gy) and that low-dose genes were associated with unique pathways and functions. The low-dose response had two major components: pathways that are consistently seen across tissues and pathways that were specific for brain tissue. Low-dose genes clustered into a saturated networ...