Alteration of Peripheral Blood T-Reg Cells and Cytokines Production in Angiography Personnel Exposed to Scattered X-Rays

Angiocardiography is an x-ray examination of the blood vessels or chambers of theheart. cardiologists and staff members applying this procedure are exposed to high levels ofscattered radiation. in our previous study the incidence of unstable chromosomal aberrationsand cytokinesis-blocked micronuclei were found to be significantly higher in exposedindividuals than the age and sex matched controls.in the present study we assessed cytokine production by peripheral blood mononuclearcells of the above cases and the percentage of treg cells. according to filrn dosimeteranalysis, personnels received 0.25-15 msv during the previous year (average of 3 msv 1'1)'isolated pbmcs from the test and control groups were stimulated with phorbol myristateacetatel ionomycin (pma/i). cytokine production was measured in the supernatants ofcultured lymphocytes. the percentage oftreg cells was studied by flow cytometry.the production of il-lo and il-5 was sibrnificantly down-regulated in the test groupcompared to the control group. in contrast, il-12 was up-regulated. yet, no statisticallysignificant difference was found for ifn- y between two groups. in addition, we found higherpercentage of cd4+cd25+bright treg cells in the study group compared to the controls.taken together, it was shown that low doses of scattered x-rays could skew cytokineprofile of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in favour of inflammatory response causingthe increase of treg cells.