[en] At high radiation doses, breaks in the DNA are considered the critical lesions in initiation of radiation- induced cancer. However, at the very low radiation doses relevant for the general public, the induction of such breaks will be rare, and other changes to the DNA such as DNA methylation may play a role in radiation responses. DNA methylation is the addition of a methyl group to cytosine in the DNA, usually where a cytosine is adjacent to a guanine (CpG). Methylation affects the way in which genes are read, and is inherited from cell to cell on replication. It is known that high dose radiation can cause changes in methylation in the genome but less is known about the effect of low dose radiation on methylation. We developed a sensitive assay to measure the levels of DNA methylation across the mouse genome by analysing a stretch of DNA sequence within Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements-1(LINE1) that comprise a very large proportion of the mouse and human genomes. Using bisulphite modification followed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCP) and high- resolution melt analysis, a very large pool of DNA sequences from throughout the genome can be studied indicating gain or loss of methylation. We validated the assay in vitro using the chemical demethylating agent 5'-aza-2' -deoxycytidine with changes at as few as 3% of CpG's being reproducibly detected. We have demonstrated a difference in the baseline levels of in vivo DNA methylation between male and female mice and between different tissues. Our initial results suggest no significant short-term or long-term changes in global DNA methylation after low dose whole-body X-radiation of 10 -Gy or 10 mGy, with a significant transient increase in DNA methylation observed 1 day after a high dose of 1 Gy. If the low radiation doses tested are inducing changes in global DNA methylation, these would appear to be smaller than the natural variation observed between the sexes and following the general stress of the sham-irradiation procedure itself.

[en] Somatic intrachromosomal recombination can result in inversions and deletions in DNA, which are important mutations in cancer. The pKZ1 chromosomal inversion assay is a sensitive assay for studying the effects of DNA damaging agents using chromosomal inversion as a mutation end-point. We have previously demonstrated that the chromosomal inversion response in pKZ1 spleen after single low doses of X-radiation exposure does not follow the linear no-threshold dose-response model. Here, we optimised a chromosomal inversion screening method to study the effect of low dose X-radiation exposure in pKZ1 prostatic tissue. In the present study, a significant induction in inversions was observed after ultra-low doses of 0.005-0.01 mGy or after a high dose of 1000 mGy, whereas a reduction in inversions to below the sham-treated frequency was observed between 1 and 10 mGy exposure. This is the first report of a reduction to below endogenous frequency for any mutation end-point in prostate. In addition, the doses of radiation studied were at least three orders of magnitude lower than have been reported in other mutation assays in prostate in vivo or in vitro. In sham-treated pKZ1 controls and in pKZ1 mice treated with low doses of 1-10 mGy the number of inversions/gland cross-section rarely exceeded three. Up to 4 and 7 inversions were observed in individual prostatic gland cross-sections after doses ≤0.02 mGy and after 1000 mGy, respectively. The number of inversions identified in individual cross-sections of prostatic glands of untreated mice and all treated mice other than the 1000 mGy treatment group followed a Poisson distribution. The dose-response curves and fold changes observed after all radiation doses studied were similar in spleen and prostate. These results suggest that the pKZ1 assay is measuring a fundamental response to DNA damage after low dose X-radiation exposure which is independent of tissue type