Microchips for rapid mixing of two aqueous streams have been produced using CaF2 wafers and SU-8 microstructuring technology and tested at the IR beamline of Bessy II in Berlin, Germany. Advantage of the synchrotron radiation over thermal globar sources for measuring at sample spots close to the diffraction limit of the employed mid-IR radiation have been documented. The capability of the exper...

Vibrational spectroscopy analyses vibrations within a molecule and can be used to characterise a molecular structure. Raman spectroscopy is one of the vibrational spectroscopic techniques, in which incident radiation is used to induce vibrations in the molecules of a sample, and the scattered radiation may be used to characterise the sample in a rapid and non-destructive manner. Infrared (IR) s...

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is activated by ionizing radiation (IR), but the molecular mechanism for this effect is unknown. We have found that intracellular generation of nitric oxide (NO) by NO synthase (NOS) is required for the rapid activation of EGFR phosphorylation by IR. Treatment of A549 lung cancer cells with IR increased NOS activity within minutes, accompanied by an incre...

Exposure to ionizing radiations (IRs) is ubiquitous in our environment and can be categorized into "targeted" effects and "non-targeted" effects. In addition to inducing deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage, IR exposure leads to epigenetic alterations that do not alter DNA sequence. Using an appropriate model to study the biological effects of radiation is crucial to better understand IR response...

Doxorubicin (DOX) was introduced as an effective chemotherapeutic for a wide range of cancers but with some severe side effects especially on myocardia. 2-Deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) enhances the damage caused by chemotherapeutics and ionizing radiation (IR) selectively in cancer cells. We have studied the effects of 1μM DOX and 500 μM 2DG on radiation induced cell death, apoptosis and also on the ex...

The advent of low-cost handheld infrared (IR) thermometers has led to a proliferation of non-contact temperature measurement in the food, building, and lowtemperature processing industries. However, these instruments are not as simple to use as they first appear due to systematic effects that are present in almost all measurements. This technical guide provides information relating to the calib...

We have hypothesized that the adaptive response to low doses of ionizing radiation (IR) is mediated by oxidized cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragments. Here, we summarize our experimental evidence for this model. Studies involving measurements of ROS, expression of the NOX (superoxide radical production), induction of apoptosis and DNA double-strand breaks, antiapoptotic gene expression and cell cycle...

Dendritic cells (DCs), as professional antigen-presenting cells, are members of the innate immune system and function as key players during the induction phase of adaptive immune responses. Uptake, processing, and presentation of antigens direct the outcome toward either tolerance or immunity. The cells of the immune system are among the most highly radiosensitive cells in the body. For high do...

Emerging evidence indicates that breast cancer-initiating cells (CICs) are relatively resistant to radiotherapy; however, the critical mechanisms determining breast CIC resistance to radiation remain elusive. In the present study, a subpopulation of cells displaying characteristics generally attributed to stem cells was identified within the breast cancer cell line MCF-7. This subpopulation dis...

IL (interleukin)-6, an established growth factor for multiple myeloma cells, induces myeloma therapy resistance, but the resistance mechanisms remain unclear. The present study determines the role of IL-6 in re-establishing intracellular redox homoeostasis in the context of myeloma therapy. IL-6 treatment increased myeloma cell resistance to agents that induce oxidative stress, including IR (io...