TY - JOUR A1 - Müller, M. A1 - Merz, F. A1 - Durante, Marco A1 - Seifert, Volker A1 - Rieger, Johannes A1 - Mittelbronn, Michel Guy André A1 - Harter, Patrick Nikolaus A1 - Mishustin, Igor A1 - Pshenichnov, Igor A1 - Rödel, Franz A1 - Stöcker, Horst A1 - Schopow, Kosta A1 - Dehghani, Faramarz A1 - Taucher-Scholz, Gisela A1 - Bechmann, Ingo T1 - Heavy ions and X-rays in brain tumor treatment : a comparison of their biological effects on tissue slice cultures N2 - Background: In this interdisciplinary project, the biological effects of heavy ions are compared to those of X-rays using tissue slice culture preparations from rodents and humans. Advantages of this biological model are the conservation of an organotypic environment and the independency from genetic immortalization strategies used to generate cell lines. Its open access allows easy treatment and observation via live-imaging microscopy. Materials and methods: Rat brains and human brain tumor tissue are cut into 300 micro m thick tissue slices. These slices are cultivated using a membrane-based culture system and kept in an incubator at 37°C until treatment. The slices are treated with X-rays at the radiation facility of the University Hospital in Frankfurt at doses of up to 40 Gy. The heavy ion irradiations were performed at the UNILAC facility at GSI with different ions of 11.4 A MeV and fluences ranging from 0.5–10 x 106 particles/cm². Using 3D-confocal microscopy, cell-death and immune cell activation of the irradiated slices are analyzed. Planning of the irradiation experiments is done with simulation programs developed at GSI and FIAS. Results: After receiving a single application of either X-rays or heavy ions, slices were kept in culture for up to 9d post irradiation. DNA damage was visualized using gamma H2AXstaining. Here, a dose-dependent increase and time-dependent decrease could clearly be observed for the X-ray irradiation. Slices irradiated with heavy ions showed less gamma H2AX-positive cells distributed evenly throughout the slice, even though particles were calculated to penetrate only 90–100 micro m into the slice. Conclusions: Single irradiations of brain tissue, even at high doses of 40 Gy, will result neither in tissue damage visible on a macroscopic level nor necrosis. This is in line with the view that the brain is highly radio-resistant. However, DNA damage can be detected very well in tissue slices using gamma H2AX-immuno staining. Thus, slice cultures are an excellent tool to study radiation-induced damage and repair mechanisms in living tissues. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://publikationen.stub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/7163 UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-70998 N1 - © 2009 Müller et al. Dieser Artikel ist ein Open Access-Artikel und steht unter den Creative Commons Lizenzbedingungen (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.de ). Er darf vervielfältigt, verbreitet und öffentlich zugänglich gemacht werden, vorausgesetzt dass Autor und Quelle genannt werden. ER -