Preventative and Therapeutic Effects of Low-dose Ionizing Radiation on the Allergic Response of Rat Basophilic Leukemia Cells

The prevalence of allergies has increased over the last four decades. In allergic reactions, mast cells induce a hypersensitive immune response to a substance that is normally harmless. Ionizing radiation has different biological effects depending on the dose and dose rate. In this study, we investigated whether low-dose irradiation before (preventative effect) or after (therapeutic effect) an antigen-antibody reaction has an anti-allergic effect. To test this, we activated rat basophilic leukemia (RBL-2H3) mast cells with anti-2,4-dinitrophenyl IgE (antibody) and 2,4-dinitrophenyl human serum albumin, which served as an antigen. To test for both the potential of a preventative effect and a therapeutic effect, we irradiated mast cells both before and after mast cell activation, and we measured mediator release and signaling pathway activity. Low-dose ionizing radiation suppressed mediator release from RBL-2H3 mast cells activated by the antigen-antibody reaction regardless of when the mast cells were irradiated. These results were due to the suppression of FcεRI expression. Therefore, we suggest that low-dose ionizing radiation has a preventative and therapeutic effect in allergic reactions via the FcεRI-mediated RBL-2H3 mast cell activation system.