Departments of Radiation Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine and the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine and the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Life Sci Space Res (Amst). 2016 Jun;9:48-55. doi: 10.1016/j.lssr.2016.04.002. Epub 2016 May 24.
Unlike terrestrial ionizing radiation, space radiation, especially galactic cosmic rays (GCR), contains high energy charged (HZE) particles with high linear energy transfer (LET). Due to a lack of epidemiologic data for high-LET radiation exposure, it is highly uncertain how high the carcinogenesis risk is for astronauts following exposure to space radiation during space missions. Therefore, using mouse models is necessary to evaluate the risk of space radiation-induced tumorigenesis; however, which mouse model is better for these studies remains uncertain. Since lung tumorigenesis is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women, and low-LET radiation exposure increases human lung carcinogenesis, evaluating space radiation-induced lung tumorigenesis is critical to enable safe Mars missions. Here, by comparing lung tumorigenesis obtained from different mouse strains, as well as miR-21 in lung tissue/tumors and serum, we believe that wild type mice with a low spontaneous tumorigenesis background are ideal for evaluating the risk of space radiation-induced lung tumorigenesis, and circulating miR-21 from such mice model might be used as a biomarker for predicting the risk.
与地球电离辐射不同，空间辐射，特别是银河宇宙射线（GCR），含有高能量的带电荷（HZE）粒子，具有高线性能量转移（LET）。由于缺乏高 LET 辐射暴露的流行病学数据，因此对于宇航员在太空任务中暴露于空间辐射后致癌风险有多高，目前还非常不确定。因此，使用小鼠模型对于评估空间辐射诱导的肿瘤发生风险是必要的；然而，对于这些研究，哪种小鼠模型更好仍然不确定。由于肺癌是男性和女性癌症死亡的主要原因，并且低 LET 辐射会增加人类肺癌的致癌作用，因此评估空间辐射诱导的肺癌发生对于实现安全的火星任务至关重要。在这里，通过比较来自不同小鼠品系的肺癌发生情况，以及肺组织/肿瘤和血清中的 miR-21，我们认为低自发肿瘤发生背景的野生型小鼠是评估空间辐射诱导的肺癌发生风险的理想模型，并且来自这种小鼠模型的循环 miR-21 可能可用作预测风险的生物标志物。
