The lack of acute effect of low-to-moderate-dose ionising radiation on endothelial proteome

Epidemiological studies have shown that moderate and low radiation doses to the heart area may result in an increase in cardiovascular mortality. It has been suggested that cardiovascular endothelium could be one of the targets for the ionising radiation-induced heart injury. We have used human endothelial cells as an in vitro model to study immediate effects of ionising radiation on endothelium. Cells were exposed to low and moderate doses of γ-radiation, and short-term protein expression profiles were examined. Proteomics analysis did not show significant changes in the examined protein expression profiles after the γ-irradiation in any of the examined conditions. The molecular level cellular damage was verified by examining phosphorylation of tumour suppressor p53 binding protein 1, which was dose- and time-dependent. Further examination of cellular proteome and phosphoproteome, using more sensitive quantification and detection techniques, is warranted and might reveal changes, which were not detected in this study.