Evaluating the radioprotective effect of arbutin on mice exposed to megavoltage X-rays based on hematological parameters and lymphocytes micronucleus assay

X-irradiations induce damages to the hematopoietic system byreducing the production of blood cells in bone marrow. in this study, theradioprotective effect of arbutin was investigated in megavoltage x-irradiatedmice by measuring changes in hematological parameters and lymphocytecells with micronucleus assay. material and methods: sixty nmri mice wereirradiated with 6 mv photon beam (2 and 4 gy in one fraction). variousconcentrations of arbutin (50, 100, and 200 mg/kg) were injected intraperitoneal,2 hours before whole body x-irradiation. samples of peripheralblood cells were collected from the left ventricle. the frequency ofmicronuclei in 1000 cells were measured for each sample and level ofperipheral blood cells were analyzed. the data were statistically evaluatedusing one-way anova, and tukey hsd test. results: x-radiations significantlydecreased the hematological parameters such as white blood cells (wbc),lymphocyte (lym), red blood cells (rbc) counts, and hemoglobin (hgb) levelscompared to the control group (p < 0.001). the frequency of micronuclei in “2and 4 gy x-irradiation + distilled water” groups was significantly higher than“2 and 4 gy irradiation + 50 mg/kg arbutin”, “2 and 4 gy irradiation + 100 mg/kg arbutin”, and “2 and 4 gy irradiation + 200 mg/kg arbutin” groups,followed by the above-mentioned blood cell parameters were droppedremarkably. conclusion: the present investigation showed that arbutin is astrong radioprotector. there were not any significant differences between thevarious concentrations of arbutin, however, the concentration of 50 mg/kgshowed higher radioprotective effect.