Vinita Chauhan
Consumer and Clinical Radiation Protection Bureau, Canada
Title: Comparative analysis of genomic profiles from human cell lines exposed to alpha particle radiation
Biography
Biography: Vinita Chauhan
Abstract
Alpha particle radiation has become an increasing public health concern. The general population is exposed through a variety of means, including ubiquitously from the environment (radon gas), when using emerging radiotherapy modalities, accidently through occupational exposures and potentially from a malicious terrorist threat.Previous work in our laboratory has identified genes responsive to alpha particle radiation in five human-derived cell-lines which have included monocytes (THP-1), lung epithelial cells (A549), keratinocytes (HEKn), lung fibroblasts (HFL-1) and isolated peripheralblood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy individuals. This report provides a meta-analysis of these previously published studies. The results from this analysis indicate that at relatively small doses of radiation exposure (0.5-1.5 Gy), each of the cell-types elicited a response, modulating numerous transcripts.All cell-types expressed a unique sub-set of genes. Thirty-six genes were common to all five cell-types. Biological processes associated with these genes included cell cycle/mitosis (FBXO5 ZWILCH CDKN1A DHFR MCM3 MCM7), telomere maintenance (ACD, HIST1H2BD, HIST1H4C) and DNA Replication (CDKN1A MCM3 MCM7). Hierarchical clustering of these transcripts separated cell-types into two main groups by specific tissue types. Overall, radiation exposure has been shown to elicit cell-dependent differential genome-wide effects. However, despite distinctions, the end outcome is central to the process of DNA damage repair. By highlighting common and differential responses between cell-lines at the transcriptional level with their associated pathways/networks, an understanding of the cellular alpha particle radiation response has been established along with the identification of potential biomarkers of exposure.