Host: The Japan Radiation Research Society
Purpose: It has been reported that heparan sulfate (HS) participates in almost every stage of leukocyte transmigration through the blood-vessel wall in inflammatory responses. However, it is not known whether HS administration could prevent radiation-induced intestinal injury. In this study, we investigated the effect of HS on local (slit) radiation-induced intestinal injury. Methods: ICR mice, 8-10 weeks old, 25-31 g body weight, were used. Mice were anesthetized and irradiated to the slit width of 7.5 mm or 10 mm abdominal region (X-ray; a single dose of 30 Gy, 150 kV, 5 mA, 1.0 mm Al + 0.2 mm Cu filters, 0.75 Gy/min). Mice were intraperitoneally administered with HS at a dose of 1 μg/g body weight at 1 day before irradiation and 5 days to 10 days daily after irradiation. Mice were weighed daily after irradiation, and the survival was recorded. At 13 day or 30 day after irradiation, the intestine of mice was obtained to assay histological change by Haematoxylin-eosin staining. Results: The body weight of mice treated with HS increased significantly compared with the untreated control on day 8 after irradiation with slit width of 7.5 mm. In addition, the survival of mice treated with HS was significantly higher than that of the untreated control mice on day 13 after irradiation with slit width of 10 mm. In the histological observation, the radiated control mice showed ulceration and granulation tissue formation in the intestinal mucosa. The regenerating intestinal crypts were also less. In contrast, the mice treated with HS exhibited a lot of regenerating crypts and healing stage of the ulceration. Conclusions: These results suggest that HS may play a role in prevention against radiation-induced intestinal injury. Further experiments will be needed to study the protective mechanism of HS.
