Zhang Yu, Yu Yanan, Gao Yue, Ma Lanfang, Xu Jie, Ding Lehan, Zhao Hongling, Hu Weixiang, Hou Kai, Zhou Ping-Kun, Guan Hua
School of Public Health, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China.
Beijing Key Laboratory for Radiobiology, Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, Beijing 100850, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2025 Jun 12;26(12):5656. doi: 10.3390/ijms26125656.
With growing public concern about the health effects of low-dose radiation, numerous studies have demonstrated that low-dose radiation can cause damage to the immune system, making intervention measures essential. This study investigated the protective effects of silybin against low-dose radiation-induced immune system damage and its underlying mechanisms at both the cellular and animal levels. At the cellular level, CCK-8 assays, ROS measurements, and RT-qPCR analysis revealed that silybin alleviated the reduction in RAW264.7 cell proliferation, intracellular ROS levels, and inflammatory cytokine expression following low-dose radiation exposure. At the animal level, comparative analyses of post-irradiation body weight, peripheral blood cell counts, immune organ coefficients, spleen HE/IHC staining, and spleen immune cell numbers demonstrated that silybin mitigated the radiation-induced decrease in body weight, reduction in peripheral blood leukocyte counts, inflammatory cell infiltration in the spleen, decline in spleen immune cell numbers, and increase in cGAS protein-positive cells. These findings indicate that silybin exerts protective effects against low-dose radiation-induced immune system damage, potentially by regulating the cGAS signaling pathway to reduce radiation-induced cellular injury, thereby enhancing its radioprotective properties.
随着公众对低剂量辐射对健康影响的关注度不断提高，大量研究表明低剂量辐射会对免疫系统造成损害，因此采取干预措施至关重要。本研究在细胞和动物水平上探究了水飞蓟宾对低剂量辐射诱导的免疫系统损伤的保护作用及其潜在机制。在细胞水平上，CCK-8 检测、活性氧测量和 RT-qPCR 分析表明，水飞蓟宾减轻了低剂量辐射暴露后 RAW264.7 细胞增殖、细胞内活性氧水平和炎性细胞因子表达的降低。在动物水平上，对辐射后体重、外周血细胞计数、免疫器官系数、脾脏 HE/免疫组化染色和脾脏免疫细胞数量的比较分析表明，水飞蓟宾减轻了辐射诱导的体重下降、外周血白细胞计数减少、脾脏炎性细胞浸润、脾脏免疫细胞数量下降以及 cGAS 蛋白阳性细胞增加。这些发现表明，水飞蓟宾对低剂量辐射诱导的免疫系统损伤具有保护作用，可能是通过调节 cGAS 信号通路来减少辐射诱导的细胞损伤，从而增强其辐射防护特性。
