EXPRESSION OF SOME ONCOFETAL ANTIGENS IN PERIPHERAL MONONUCLEAR-CELLS OF HUMAN AND MONKEY EXPOSED TO LOW-DOSES OF IONIZING-RADIATION

Expression of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), trophoblast-specific beta1-glycoprotein (TSG) and embryonic prealbumin-1 (EPA) on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBM) was studied in the blood of: a) healthy donors, inhabitants of Kiev, b) persons who participated in the reconstruction of Chernobyl AS and obtained the doses of combined irradiation up to 0.25 Gy and c) Pavian-gamadril monkeys exposed to the doses of 0.125; 0.250; 0.675; 1.00 Gy. The study was carried out by means of flow cytometry with anti-CEA, anti-TSG and anti-EPA rabbit antibodies and FITC-conjugated donkey anti-rabbit antibodies. 3-20% of PBM of healthy donors bound Abs specific to CEA, TSG and EPA. Pretreatment with 0.05 glycine buffer containing 0.14 M NaCl, pH=2.8, didn't influence the PBM capacity to bind these Abs. Persons who participated in the reconstruction of Chernobyl AS had either PBM levels undistinguishable from those of healthy donors or didn't have PBM binding anti-CEA, anti-TSG and anti-EPA Abs at all. Content of PBM expressing CEA, TSG and EPA didn't exceed 10% for each antigen both in unirradiated monkeys and in those after irradiation with 0.125 Gy. Further irradiation resulted in dramatic increase of the studied cells number. In 1 and 2.5 months after irradiation the content of PBM expressing these antigens in monkeys irradiated with 1.0 Gy became comparable with that found in unirradiated animals.