Association between NF-κB Activation in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells and Late Skin and Subcutaneous Fibrosis following Radiotherapy

Figure 4

Late radiation-induced fibrosis in patients and NF-κB p65 nuclear accumulations in their PMBCs. The purity of the nuclear extracts from contamination of the cytoplasmic fractions is shown by representative Western blot bands (Figure 1(a)). (a) Representative Western blot bands reflect characteristic differences in band densities between nuclear p65 of irradiated (1 hour after irradiation with 2 Gy) and nonirradiated PMBCs in 2 patients. (b) Categorical analysis of nuclear p65 expression ratio of the irradiated to the nonirradiated PMBCs in patients with ≥2 versus those with <2 grade late skin and subcutaneous fibrosis. ^aCrude value from the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. ^bAdjusted value from the multiple linear regression model adjusted for age, sex, smoking history, alcohol consumption, TNM stage, chemotherapy treatment, and surgery.

(a)

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