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Mediators of Inflammation
Volume 6 (1997), Issue 3, Pages 185-193
doi:10.1080/09629359791677

Ionizing radiation enhances IL-6 and IL-8 production by human endothelial cells

Institut de Protection et de Sûreté Nucléaire, Département de Protection de la santé de l'Homme et de Dosimétrie, Section Autonome de Radiobiologie Appliquée à la Médecine, IPSN, BP n ˚6, Fontenay-aux-Roses Cédex, F-92265 , France

Copyright © 1997 Hindawi Publishing Corporation. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Irradiation exposure is known to induce an inflammatory reaction. Endothelial cells play a crucial role both in the inflammatory process and in radiation damage. Therefore, supernatants and cell lysates of 60Co-irradiated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) have been assessed for the presence of pro-inflammatory cytokines. After gamma irradiation, interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-1β and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α remained undetectable in both cell supernatants and cell lysates. However, a dose-dependent increase in the production of IL-6 and IL-8 has been demonstrated up to 6 days after exposure. These data indicate that the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-8 may be involved in the inflammatory response of vascular endothelium induced by exposure to ionizing radiation.