DRINKING BEER REDUCES THE RADIATION INDUCED CHROMOSOME ABERRATIONS IN HUMAN LYMPHOCYTES

Search for chemical agents able to protect human beings from radiation damages is a key issue in radiation biology. In fact, radiation protectors are needed for both acute exposures (e.g. nuclear accidents, radiation therapy, or military applications) and low-dose irradiation (diagnostic radiology, high-altitude and space flights, radon indoors, etc.) It has been known that a number of alcohols, which readily react with the hydroxyl radical, are efficient radioprotectors. We here investigated the radioprotective effects of beer intake on human blood. Whole blood was irradiated with 200 kVp X rays and LET 50 keV/um carbons from the HIMAC (the synchrotron) at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS, Chiba, Japan). Cultures were initiated using 1.0 ml of irradiated whole blood in 9 ml of RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 20 % (v/v) fetal bovine serum, 0.06 mg/ml kanamycin, 1.25 mg/ml sodium bicarbonate, 10 ul/ml PHA-M, 0.05 ug/ml colcemid. The irradiated blood cells were plated in T-25 flasks and incubated for 52 hr at 37 C-degree in a humidified atmosphere containing 95 % air plus 5 % CO2. In the present study, we found that radiation induced chromosome aberrations were decreased by intake of beer. The radioprotection was more effective for carbon ions, high-density ionizing radiation, than X rays.The 2nd International Workshop on Space Radiation Researc

Psedouridine reduces radiation-induced chromosome aberration in human lymphocytes

We have previously found that beer drinking reduces chromosome aberrations in lymphocytes irradiated in vitro. In this study, human whole blood was in vitro exposed to 200 kVp X rays or 50 keV/micro.m carbon ions in the presence or absence of beer, ethanol and b-pseudouridine (one of the beer component). All the three agents reduced the chromosome aberrations (dicentric) that were caused by either X rays or carbon ions of 4 Gy. Maximum protection for X rays by ethanol, beer and b-pseudouridine was 64 %, 26 % and 34 %, respectively, while maximum protection for carbon-ion by ethanol, beer and b-pseudouridine was 22 %, 26 % and 32 %, respectively. It is concluded that b-pseudouridine, a nucleotide component of tRNA, is a potent protector for damages caused not only by low radiation but also by high LET radiation.9th workshop on Heavy Charged Particles in Biology and Medicine and 3rd ENLIGHT co-ordination meetin

Drinking Beer Reduces Radiation-induced Chromosome Aberrations in Human Lymphocytes

We here investigated and reported the effects of beer drinking on radiation-induced chromosome aberrations in blood lymphocytes. Human blood that was collected either before or after drinking a 700 ml beer was in vitro irradiated with 200 kVp X rays or 50 keV/micro carbon ions. The relation between the radiation dose and the aberration frequencies (fragments and dicentrics) was significantly (p < 0.05) lower for lymphocytes collected 3 h after beer drinking than those before drinking. Fitting the dose response to a linear quadratic model showed that the alpha term of carbon ions was significantly (p < 0.05) decreased by beer drinking. A decrease of dicentric formation was detected as early as 0.5 h after beer drinking, and lasted not shorter than 4.5 h. The mitotic index of lymphocytes was higher after beer drinking than before, indicating that a division delay would not be responsible for the low aberrations induced by beer drinking. An in vitro treatment of normal lymphocytes with 0.1 M ethanol, which corresponded to a concentration of 6-times higher than the maximum ethanol concentration in the blood after beer drinking, reduced the dicentric formation caused by X-ray irradiation, but not by carbon-ion irradiation. The beer-induced reduction of dicentric formation was not affected by serum. It is concluded that beer could contain non-ethanol elements that reduce the chromosome damage of lymphocytes induced by high-LET radiation

Glycine betaine, a beer component, protects radiation-induced injury

Human hole-blood was exposed t