Radiation induced epigenetic dysregulation in rat mammary gland tissue / Dorothy A. McRae

Most breast cancer patients undergo radiation diagnostics and are also treated with radiotherapy. In addition to being an important treatment modality, ionizing radiation (IR) is a potent tumour-causing agent that has been linked to breast cancer development. However, the exact molecular etiology of IR-induced mammary gland carcinogenesis remains unknown. We set out to analyze the role of DNA methylation in mammary gland responses to low dose IR using a well-established rat model. We also studied low dose IR effects on global gene expression and microRNAome. We found that exposure to low, mammography-like dose of IR led to a significant loss of global DNA methylation in rat mammary gland tissue. Furthermore, low dose IR significantly affected rat mammary gland transcriptome and microRNAome. The datasets generated within the scope of this thesis may be used to identify novel predictive biomarkers for assessment of the magnitude of IR effects on mammary gland tissue.

Authors

• McRae, Dorothy A.
• University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science

• Ionizing radiation -- Health aspects
• Ionizing radiation -- Physiological effect
• Ionizing radiation -- Dose-response relationship
• DNA -- Methylation
• Breast -- Cancer -- Radiotherapy
• Dissertations, Academic

Identifier

hdl:10133/2615

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:opus.uleth.ca:10133/2615