Inflammation and Immunity in Radiation Damage to the Gut Mucosa

• Published in: BioMed research international Vol. 2013; no. 2013; pp. 1 - 9
• Main Authors: Benderitter, Marc, Guipaud, Olivier, Milliat, Fabien, François, Agnès
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cairo, Egypt Hindawi Publishing Corporation 01.01.2013
• Subjects: Abnormalities, Radiation-Induced - immunology; Abnormalities, Radiation-Induced - pathology; Commensals; Erythema - immunology; Erythema - pathology; Gastrointestinal Tract - immunology; Gastrointestinal Tract - radiation effects; Humans; Immunity - radiation effects; Inflammation - pathology; Life Sciences; Mucous Membrane - immunology; Mucous Membrane - pathology; Mucous Membrane - radiation effects; Neoplasms - radiotherapy; Radiation; Radiotherapy - adverse effects; Review; Humans; adaptive immunity; Neoplasms; vascular endothelium; tumor localization; innate immunity; G protein coupled receptor; intestine motility; review; radiation dose; immunology; toll like receptor; Abnormalities; macrophage; gastrointestinal toxicity; antigen; pathogenesis; erythema; radiation dose fractionation; Radiation-Induced; radiotherapy; nonhuman; neoplasm; gastrointestinal mucosa; Paneth cell; cytokine release; lymphoid cell; gastrointestinal tract; pathology; chymase; immunity; Mucous Membrane; neutrophil; radiation exposure; cellular distribution; immune response; inflammation; congenital malformation; cell polarity; radiation injury; disease severity; human; soft tissue inflammation; cell death; intestine mucosa; radiosensitivity; mast cell; pelvis cancer; homeostasis; prostate cancer; prescription; radiation; digestive system inflammation; proctitis; mucosa; pattern recognition receptor; reactive oxygen metabolite
• ISSN: 2314-6133; 2314-6141
• DOI: 10.1155/2013/123241

Erythema was observed on the skin of the first patients treated with radiation therapy. It is in particular to reduce this erythema, one feature of tissue inflammation, that prescribed dose to the tumor site started to be fractionated. It is now well known that radiation exposure of normal tissues generates a sustained and apparently uncontrolled inflammatory process. Radiation-induced inflammation is always observed, often described, sometimes partly explained, but still today far from being completely understood. The thing with the gut and especially the gut mucosa is that it is at the frontier between the external milieu and the organism, is in contact with a plethora of commensal and foreign antigens, possesses a dense-associated lymphoid tissue, and is particularly radiation sensitive because of a high mucosal turnover rate. All these characteristics make the gut mucosa a strong responsive organ in terms of radiation-induced immunoinflammation. This paper will focus on what has been observed in the normal gut and what remains to be done concerning the immunoinflammatory response following localized radiation exposure.