Objectives

• Local irradiation of hearts and of two peripheral arteries of different strains of mice
• Long-term follow up of the irradiated animals
• Isolation of endothelial cells and cardiomyocytes at different times after local irradiation
• Study of the different late post-radiation effects in microvascular endothelial cells

Work description

The central objectives of WP02 are the irradiation and follow-up of animals as well as endothelial and cardiac cell isolation.
Local irradiation of mice to the heart will be carried out by partner TUD with single doses ranging from 0.1 to 16 Gy. The heart of these mice will be collected at selected time points up to one year after irradiation. Endothelial cells will be harvested for further investigation.
Partner USFD and MSCCI will jointly optimise the culture technique of these microvascular
endothelial cells. Primary cell cultures will be prepared, split and sent to all partners for their ex vivo/ in vitro studies. Partner IRSN will specifically isolate and investigate
primary cardiomyocytes from irradiated hearts. Samples of these cells will also be provided to other consortium partners as needed.
Additionally, at selected times (3 - 18 months) frozen sections of irradiated hearts will
be prepared by TUD and sent for further study to partners as needed.
At selected times (1 - 12 months after local heart irradiation) blood will be
taken and stored at TUD for later analysis, in particular by TUM and UL.
NKI will separately  irradiate mice to the heart (2 - 16 Gy) for specific functional tests.
NKI will irradiate 200 mice locally to the carotid arteries with 2 - 8 Gy for specific analysis of atherosclerotic changes in large vessels while the hearts are exposed to doses ranging from < 0.2Gy to 8 Gy in different parts for analysis of the effect of inhomogenous dose distribution..
TUD will irradiate the a. saphena of the left hind legs.

WP leader

WP leader is Professor Dr. Wolfgang Dörr ( Technical University of Dresen, Germany), the head of the normal tissue radiobiology (NTRB) group, head of the radiobiology laboratory and deputy head of the Section on clinical radiation oncology and radiobiology. He is also deputy director of the experimental centre, the core animal breeding and experimentation facility of the faculty, animal welfare manager of both the TUD and the Research Centre Dresden Rossendorf (FZD), where part of the micro-imaging facilities are located.

Participating consortium partners

Technische Universität München, Germany
Netherland Cancer Institute, The Netherlands
Institut de Radioprotection et de Sureté nucléaire Villejuif, France
University of Belfast, United Kingdom
Maria Sklodowska - Curie Cancer Institute, Poland
University of Sheffield, United Kingdom