Membrane oxidative damage and apoptosis in cervical carcinoma cells of patients after radiation therapy

This article describes evaluation of plasma membrane fluidity and intracellular SOD with relation to apoptotic death of cervical carcinoma cells after radiation therapy. Cells from biopsies of cancer patients (stage IIIB) prior to and 24 h after radiation dose of 2 Gy were examined. Plasma membrane fluidity, measured by fluorescence polarization of DPH incorporated into lipid bilayer and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, determined by epinephrine method, showed significant decrease but per centapoptotic cells, as determined by annexin-V and TUNEL methods, were found increased by two folds after radiotherapy. It is suggested that decrease in DPH polarization in membrane, reduction in SOD activity and increased apoptosis in cervical cells of cancer patients treated with radiation may be consequent to oxidative damage induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS), which may have implications in developing predictive protocol in cancer radiotherapy.