Figure 1

Pretreatment of COX-2 inhibitor suppresses induction of COX-2, PGE2 and 8-OHdG in non-targeted lung tissues after partial body irradiation. (A) Western blot data show pretreatment with Nimesulide did not affect COX-2 basal expression in lung tissues but reduced COX-2 expression levels in non-targeted lung tissues 24 h after lower abdominal irradiation. (B) COX-2 was significantly reduced in non-targeted bronchial epithelial cells at 24 h after partial body irradiation. A representative microscopic field from each group is shown under 10 × magnification. Bar represents 200 μm. (C) Nimesulide reduced PGE2 production in non-targeted lung tissues. Pooled data from three animals and error bars: means±s.e.m. Quantification of COX-2 staining intensity in bronchial epithelial cells in Nimesulide-treated mice showed a significant reduction relative to controls with asterisks (**P<0.01, student’s t test). (D) Pretreatment with Nimesulide suppressed the induction of 8-OHdG in non-targeted lung tissues. 8-OHdG was localised predominantly in bronchial epithelial cells at 24 h after partial body irradiation. A representative microscopic field from each group is shown under 40 × magnification. Bar represents 50 μm. Statistical comparison between DMSO and Nimesulide groups with similar partial body irradiation is marked with asterisks (**P<0.01, Student’s t-test). Error bars indicate standard errors of the means (s.e.m.) for 20 independent microscopic fields from three different mice.