Can Melatonin Help Us in Radiation Oncology Treatments?

Figure 5

Effect of melatonin on radiation-induced apoptosis in rats peripheral blood lymphocytes. Rats were exposed to a single whole-body gamma ray dose of 8 Gy with or without melatonin (Mel) pretreatments (10 and 100 mg/kg IP 1 h before irradiation). Apoptotic and necrotic lymphocytes were analyzed by flow cytometric assay 4 h after irradiation. Representative dot plots of one set of three independent experiments of Annexin V and PI staining. Apoptotic lymphocytes (Annexin V⁺ and PI⁻) were displayed in the lower right quadrant and necrotic lymphocytes (Annexin V⁺ and PI⁺) were shown in the upper right quadrant [61].