Ortmann, E. K., Mayerhofer, T., Getoff, N. and Kodym, R. Effect of Antioxidant Vitamins on Radiation-Induced Apoptosis in Cells of a Human Lymphoblastic Cell Line. Radiat. Res. 161, 48–55 (2004).

Modulating the amount of radiation-induced apoptosis by administering antioxidant vitamins offers a possible way to influence radiation-induced side effects in normal tissues. Therefore, we investigated the effect of beta-carotene, vitamin C and alpha-tocopherol on radiation-induced apoptosis in cells in culture. Human T-lymphoblastic MOLT-3 cells were irradiated with a dose of 3 Gy 1 h after or immediately prior to the addition of vitamins in three concentrations (0.01 μM, 1 μM and 100 μM). Eight hours later, apoptosis was scored morphologically by staining the nuclear DNA with Hoechst 33342. When given prior to irradiation, beta-carotene and vitamin E reduced the amount of radiation-induced apoptosis significantly at concentrations of 0.01 μM and 1 μM. In contrast, vitamin C did not show any protective effect when given at these two concentrations and caused a slight but significant radiosensitization at 100 μM. At 0.01 μM, all combinations of two vitamins showed a protective effect. This was also observed for the combination of all three vitamins at concentrations of 0.01 and 1 μM. When given immediately after irradiation, each of the three vitamins showed a protective effect at 0.01 μM. In addition, the combination of alpha-tocopherol and vitamin C reduced radiation-induced apoptosis slightly when given at 1 μM. In all other cases, no statistically significant modulation of radiation-induced apoptosis was observed. In our experimental system, the protective effect of beta-carotene and vitamin E was dependent on concentration and occurred only in the micromolar and sub-micromolar concentration range, while vitamin C alone, but not in combinations, had a sensitizing effect, thus arguing for a careful consideration of vitamin concentrations in clinical settings.