Abstract
Radiotherapy is constricted by collateral normal tissue injury during treatment, particularly the gastrointestinal tracts, which is usually referred as radiation-induced gastrointestinal syndrome (RIGS). Currently, there is no FDA-approved agent for the prevention or treatment of RIGS. By using a mice model of RIGS, we demonstrated that 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PD) prevents radiation-induced fatal intestinal injury and significantly increases mice survival following lethal doses of radiation. 1,2-PD pretreatment also enhanced the survival of Lgr5+ISCs and improved crypts regeneration after radiation. Moreover, we confirmed 1,2-PD induces dormant cell cycle arrest in enterocytes and ameliorates DNA damage both in vitro and in vivo. Although we did have observed 1,2-PD pretreatment inhibiting P53-PUMA signal pathway, but fail to prove its relation with radiation resistance. In RNA sequencing, we have observed 1,2-PD pretreatment significantly upregulates the Hif-2α, Hif-3α and PPARα target gene ACOX2, whilst downregulating the cell cycle drivers E2f3 and Cyclin D2. These results demonstrate that ISCs play a key role in radiation-induced intestinal regeneration and that 1,2-PD acts as a potent intestinal radioprotector
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Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The raw RNA-seq data reported in this study have been deposited in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) under BioProject accession number PRJNA1358381.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Professor Yuwen Cong for his generous gift of Lgr5-EGFP-IRES-CreERT2 mice. We also thank Goulin Xiong and Yin Xu for their technical assistance in experiments. The authors declare no use of Artificial Intelligence in this study.
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This research received no specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
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Ying Jiang and Xing Shen designed this study and conducted the main analysis. Jiwei Zhao, Chunan Zhao, Ying Jiang, Xing Shen, Aoqiang Ji and Xun Wang performed the experiments. Chunan Zhao wrote and edited the manuscript. Zuyin Yu, Gang Sun, Shuang Xing and Yuwen Cong provided additional expertise. Xing Shen, He Xiao, Zuyin Yu reviewed and edited the article. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
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The research was carried out in accordance with the approval of the ethics committee. Studies involving animal experiment were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine. The approval project title is "Mechanism Study of Propylene Glycol in the Prevention and Treatment of Intestinal Acute Radiation Syndrome”. The permit number is “Ethics Review Approval no. IACUC-DWZX-2020–599″, which issued at April 15, 2025. All protocols followed are compliant with specific ethical regulations.
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Zhao, J., Zhao, C., Shen, X. et al. 1,2-propanediol ameliorated radiation-induced intestinal injury in mice. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-43614-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-43614-5
