A Special Section:The Radioadaptive Response

• Published in: JOURNAL OF RADIATION RESEARCH Vol. 50; no. 5; p. 383
• Main Author: OHNISHI, Takeo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese; English
• Published: THE JAPAN RADIATION RESEARCH SOCIETY 2009
• ISSN: 0449-3060; 1349-9157
• DOI: 10.1269/jrr.090

[PREFACE] Dr.Sheldon Wolf and his colleagues in the USA proposed the use of the term “radioadaptive response” about 1980. A priming irradiation with a low dose or delivered at a low dose rate was observed to depress the biological effects induced by a subsequent high dose irradiation. This phenomenon had already been observed after exposures to UV light and to heat. UV-reactivation had been described, and this meant that UV-irradiated phage had higher survival rates in Escherichia coli host cells which had been irradiated with a low dose of UV light prior to infection. Lower survival rates were seen for phage in host cells which had not been exposed to UV prior to infection. In the case of heat, cells exposed to a mild heat treatment acquired thermotolerance against subsequent severe heat exposures. The development of this thermotolerance was shown to depend on the induction of heat shock proteins. Therefore, when the first reports of the radioadaptive response were made, scientists were already aware of such a phenomenon.