Effects of carbon-ion microbeam irradiation on locomotion and pharyngeal pumping motion in

Suzuki, Michiyo; Hattori, Yuya; Sakashita, Tetsuya; Funayama, Tomoo; Yokota, Yuichiro; Ikeda, Hiroko; Kobayashi, Yasuhiko

The nematode is a good model system to examine radiation effects on vital functions such as locomotion, feeding, learning and memory. Using , we recently investigated the radiation effects on locomotion (snake-like crawling motion) and found that whole-body irradiation significantly reduced locomotion. Furthermore, we focused on the pharyngeal pumping motion (chewing and swallowing), which is a rapid periodic motion, and found that the proportion of pumping-motion arrest increased after whole-body irradiation. As the next step, we started to examine whether or not the effects observed after whole-body irradiation could be induced by microbeam irradiation to a very limited region. In this report, we summarize the results of microbeam irradiation experiments we carried out in the past few years. Main findings in this study are the following: (1) Effects of the region-specific microbeam irradiation differ depending on types of motion, and (2) effects of whole-body irradiation tend to be more effective than those of the region-specific microbeam irradiation at the same irradiation dose. Further studies on the mechanisms underlying the radiation-induced changes of movements are required.