Viability of lymphocyte of gamma irradiated blood

Biodosimetry may be based in both cellular and molecular blood changes which can suggest cell viability. These changes can be identified with specific molecular markers attached non-covalently, giving a particular fluorescent signal. The accounting of these early response biomarkers is used for assessing radiation doses. Most of dose-prediction models are based on blood lymphocyte counts after the exposure to ionizing radiation. Additionally, lymphocytes depletion is used to reduce the risk of transfusion associated graft versus host diseases. In this work, we have irradiated human blood with60Co to doses ranging from 3.21 to 71.65Gy. We used easy hematological techniques such as Giemsa dying and flow citometry, for studying lymphocytes viability as measure of the radiation effect on the biological tissue. Our results show that lymphocytes lose viability at doses greater than 20Gy, and this is manifested by increased cell volume, nuclear and cytoplasmic fragmentation (apoptosis evidence) and quantitative lymphocyte reduction. Furthermore, we found that it is possible to recognize lymphocyte viability of blood gamma irradiated using practical clinical laboratory techniques. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.