Twenty years of FISH-based translocation analysis for retrospective ionizing radiation biodosimetry.

Purpose: The fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) technique, which easily detects reciprocal translocations, is currently used to estimate doses in retrospective biological dosimetry, after suspected accidental overexposure to ionizing radiation (IR). This study of 42 cases aimed to verify the appropriateness of this assay for radiation dose reconstruction, compared to the dicentric assay, and to evaluate other limitations.

Material And Methods: We labeled chromosomes 2, 4, and 12 by 3-color FISH painting to detect translocations on lymphocytes of patients with suspected past IR overexposure.

PCC-ring induction in human lymphocytes exposed to gamma and neutron irradiation.

In case of an accidental overexposure to ionizing radiation where the dose received by the victim is over 5 Gy, the conventional biological indicator of dose, the dicentric assay, does not provide an accurate enough dose measurement. A more appropriate technique is to measure ring chromosomes in stimulated lymphocytes. Dose-effect relationships were obtained by plotting the frequencies of Premature Chromosome Condensation (PCC)-rings in PCC lymphocytes obtained by chemical induction with Calyculin A in vitro, irradiated with doses between 5 to 25 Gy.

Insulin and Neuroparsin Promote Neurite Outgrowth in Cultured Locust CNS.

Organotypic cultures of locust embryo central nervous system (CNS) were used to study the influence of hormonal factors on neurite outgrowth. Explants from the third thoracic ganglion (embryonic day 9) were grown in a serum-free medium and exposed to insulin, neuroparsin, a recently characterized insect neurohormone, somatostatin and two insect hormones: 20-hydroxyecdysone and juvenile hormone. These hormonal factors were tested either alone or in several combinations.

Direct Evidence for in vitro Binding of a Lectin from Arachis hypogea to Endoblastic Primordial Germ Cells of Amphibian Embryos: (Peanut-agglutinin binding primordial germ cells/embryos/Amphibian).

Peanut agglutinin was previously shown to have a specific affinity for primordial germ cells (PGCs) from anuran amphibian embryos. For separation of these cells from endoblastic ones, suspensions of dissociated cells from the endoblastic masses of Xenopus laevis and Rana dalmatina embryos were treated with peanut agglutinin. This treatment resulted in agglutination of a small number of cells, and these aggregates were separated from unaggregated single cells by gravity in 50% calf serum medium.