Radioidine therapy temporarily increases circulating endothelial cells and decreases endothelial progenitor cells
Barbara Palumbo1, Renato Palumbo, Helmut Sinzinger
1The Institute of Nuclear Medicine, University of Perugia, Italy.
Background:
Radiotherapy can cause vascular injury. No data on radioiodine therapy and vascular damage are available.
Material And Methods:
We examined the number of circulating endothelial cells (CEC) and circulating endothelial progenitor cells (CEPC) before therapy 1, 2, 3 and 5 days as well as 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 weeks after therapy with (131)I at doses ranging from 5-200 mCi. The individual number of CEC and CEPC is associated with the presence of risk factors.
Results:
Irrespective of prevalues, CEC exhibited a significant dose-dependent temporary increase reaching the maximum in weeks 1 and 2. In contrast, CEPC show a decrease at the same time.
Conclusions:
These results indicate that (131)I-therapy induces a dose-dependent radiation injury at the vascular wall level enhancing endothelial desquamation and reducing reendothelialization and thereby a proatherogenic stage. The clinical consequence of these findings still needs to be assessed.
