P-53 protein – a marker of GMK cell

Ionizing radiation may have a mutagenic effect on cells and lead to their death. Studies were carried out for many years on spleen, thymic, bone marrow or intestinal epithelium cells which demonstrated particular sensitivity to radiation leading to cell and nuclear disintegration called apoptosis. There are many kinds of cells in an organism in which morphological traits of radiation-induced damage are not found. Kidney cells are among such “insensitive” cells.
The study was aimed to assess the effect of technetium 99m on kidney epithelial cell culture of a green monkey. 1mCi technetium was added to the culture. On the fifth day, part of preparations were stained with hematoxylin and eosine while the remaining ones were subjected to immunochemical staining for the presence of p-53 protein.
The study demonstrated:
1. the lack of morphological radiation-induced damage in hematoxylin and eosine stained histological preparations;
2. about three-fold increase of the number of cell nuclei stained for the presence of p-53 protein as compared to the group of culture growing without radioactive technetium.
The suggested experimental model may be advantageous for the assessment of the effect of radiation on kidney cells that have been so far considered to be “insensitive”, and the presence of p-53 protein in a cell nucleus is a sensitive polypeptide marker of radiation-induced damage.