Assessment of biological effect of low-dose radiation by phosphorylated H2AX in vivo

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Radiation induced-DNA double strand break (DSB) is one major initial cause of genomic instability leading to cancer. The creation of a DNA DSB in eukaryotic cells is generally accompanied by the formation of hundreds of phosphorylated H2AX (gamma-H2AX) molecules in the chromatin flanking the DSB site. Antibodies to gamma-H2AX allow the visualization of a "focus" at the DSB site. Since it has been demonstrated that the numbers of gamma-H2AX foci correlate directly to the numbers of DNA DSB, the detection of gamma-H2AX is an attractive candidate for monitoring DNA DSB levels. Here, to assess biological effect by radiation exposure after the accident, we performed quantitation of gamma-H2AX foci as a maker of DNA DSB in bovine lymphocytes from Fukushima evacuated area. Although majority of lymphocytes are negative of gamma-H2AX foci, immunostaining data clearly showed an increase of population of gamma-H2AX foci positive cells from Fukushima evacuated area.