Effects of medical diagnostic X-rays delivered at 0.01 or 0.05 mGy on human blood cells

Abstract

Background: Low-dose X-rays are commonly used in medical imaging to help in the diagnosis of diseases. However, the deleterious effects of exposure to medical diagnostic low-dose X-rays remain a highly debated topic. The objective was to study the effects of medical diagnostic X-rays on human blood cells. Materials and Methods: We studied the effects of medical diagnostic low-dose X-rays (80 kVp), i.e.,0.01 or 0.05 mGy, after the in vitro exposure of human red blood cells (RBCs) and peripheral blood mononucleated cells (PBMCs).Cells with no irradiation served as the control group. The biological endpoints that were used to determine the effects of medical diagnostic low-dose X-rays were hemolysis for RBCs and mitochondrial membrane potential, lysosomes, and the cell cycle for PBMCs. Results: Our results showed no changes in the hemolysis of RBCs and mitochondrial membrane potential, lysosome, or cell cycle in cells exposed to these low doses of X-rays when compared to the corresponding nonirradiated cells at all harvest timepoints. Conclusion: These results suggested that there were no deleterious effects of diagnostic low-dose X-rays when human RBCs and PBMCs were exposed in vitro.