A Therapeutic Role for Survivin in Mitigating the Harmful Effects of Ionizing Radiation

Figure 4

Histological analysis shows that survivin expression can mitigate the damaging effects of radiation therapy at the cellular level. After six weeks, mice were euthanized and muscle as well as the overlying dermal tissue at the site of radiation treatment was excised, stained, and examined. Mice treated with rAAV-survivin showed increased expression of the survivin protein (a). H&E staining showed that the integrity of the tissue was significantly affected at the cellular level in YFP mice but not in survivin expressing mice (b). Additionally, fibrosis was evident in the YFP mice but not in the survivin mice, as shown by staining with Masson’s Trichrome (c).