Expression profiles are different in carbon ion-irradiated normal human fibroblasts and their bystander cells

Evidence has accumulated that ionizing radiation induces biological effects in non-irradiated bystander cells having received signals from directly irradiated cells; however, energetic heavy ion-induced bystander response is incompletely characterized. Here we performed microarray analysis of irradiated and bystander fibroblasts in confluent cultures. To see the effects in bystander cells, each of 1, 5 and 25 sites was targeted with 10 particles of carbon ions (18.3 MeV/u, 103 keV/microm) using microbeams, where particles traversed 0.00026, 0.0013 and 0.0066% of cells, respectively. diated cells, cultures were exposed to 10% survival dose (D), 0.1D and 0.01D of corresponding broadbeams (108 keV/microm). Irrespective of the target numbers (1, 5 or 25 sites) and the time (2 or 6h postirradiation), similar expression changes were observed in bystander cells. Among 874 probes that showed more than 1.5-fold changes in bystander cells, 25% were upregulated and the remainder downregulated. These included genes related to cell communication (PIK3C2A, GNA13, FN1, ANXA1 and IL1RAP), stress response (RAD23B, ATF4 and EIF2AK4) and cell cycle (MYCN, RBBP4 and NEUROG1). Pathway analysis revealed serial bystander activation of G protein/PI-3 kinase pathways. Instead, genes related to cell cycle or death (CDKN1A, GADD45A, NOTCH1 and BCL2L1), and cell communication (IL1B, TCF7 and ID1) were upregulated in irradiated cells, but not in bystander cells. Our results indicate different expression profiles in irradiated and bystander cells, and imply that intercellular signaling between irradiated and bystander cells activate intracellular signaling, leading to the transcriptional stress response in bystander cells.