Research into the radiosensitivity of normal brain tissue

Suzuki, Yoshiyuki*; Yoshida, Yukari*; Shirai, Katsuyuki*; Hamada, Nobuyuki*; Mizui, Toshiyuki*; Noda, Shinei*; Funayama, Tomoo; Sakashita, Tetsuya; Kobayashi, Yasuhiko; Shirao, Tomoaki*; Ozawa, Seiji*; Nakano, Takashi*

Damage to normal brain tissue caused by irradiation has not been studied in detail. In this study, we investigated the effect of X- and C-irradiation on cultured normal neurons (immature and mature) and cultured organotypic brain slice tissues. The radiosensitivity of immature neurons was significantly higher than that of mature neurons. The effect of C-irradiation on immature neurons was about 6 times higher than that of X-irradiation. In organotypic slice culture, X- and C-irradiation induced the remarkable morphological change, especially, in the external granule cell layer. The effect of C-irradiation was about 2 times higher than that of X-irradiation.