The Effect of Contrast Enhanced Abdominopelvic Magnetic Resonance Imaging on Expression and Methylation Level of Atm and Akt Genes

Objective: to evaluate the effect of contrast enhanced abdominopelvic magnetic resonance imaging (mri), using a 3 tesla scanner, on expression and methylation level of atm and akt genes in human peripheral blood lymphocytes. materials and methods: in this prospective in vivo study, blood samples were obtained from 20 volunteer patients with mean age of 43 ± 8 years (range 32-68 years) before contrast enhanced mri, 2 hours and 24 hours after contrast enhanced abdominopelvic 3 tesla mri. after separation of mononuclear cells from peripheral blood, using ficoll-hypaque, we analyzed gene expression changes of atm and akt genes 2 hours and 24 hours after mri using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qrt-pcr). we also evaluated methylation percentage of the above mentioned genes in before, 2 hours and 24 hours after mri, using methysybr method. results: fold change analysis, in comparison with the baseline, respectively showed 1.1 ± 0.7 and 0.8 ± 0.5 mean of gene expressions in 2 and 24 hours after mri for atm, while the results were 1.4 ± 0.6 and 1.4 ± 1 for akt (p>0.05). methylation of the atm gene promoter were 8.8 ± 1.5%, 9 ± 0.6% and 9 ± 0.8% in before contrast enhanced mri, 2 and 24 hours after contrast enhanced mri, respectively (p>0.05). methylation of akt gene promoter in before contrast enhanced mri, 2 hours and 24 hours after contrast enhanced mri was 5.4 ± 2.5, 5 ± 3.2, 4.9 ± 2.9 respectively (p>0.05). conclusion: contrast enhanced abdominopelvic mri using 3 tesla scanner apparently has no negative effect on the expression and promoter methylation level of atm and akt genes involved in the repair pathways of genome.