Tong JY, Jiang W, Yu XQ, Wang R, Lu GH, Gao DW, Lv ZW, Li D. Effect of low-dose radiation on thyroid function and the gut microbiota. World J Gastroenterol 2022; 28(38): 5557-5572 [PMID: 36304083 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i38.5557]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Dan Li, PhD, Professor, Department of Nuclear Medicine , Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 107 Yanjiangxi Road, Guangzhou 200072, Guangdong Province, China. plumredlinda@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Microbiology
Article-Type of This Article
Basic Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 14, 2022; 28(38): 5557-5572 Published online Oct 14, 2022. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i38.5557
Effect of low-dose radiation on thyroid function and the gut microbiota
Jun-Yu Tong, Wen Jiang, Xia-Qing Yu, Ru Wang, Gang-Hua Lu, Ding-Wei Gao, Zhong-Wei Lv, Dan Li
Jun-Yu Tong, Wen Jiang, Xia-Qing Yu, Ru Wang, Gang-Hua Lu, Ding-Wei Gao, Zhong-Wei Lv, Nuclear Medicine, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200072, China
Dan Li, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 200072, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Tong JY performed the statistical analysis and drafted this manuscript; Jiang W designed and performed the experiments; Yu XQ, Wang R, Lu CH, and Gao DW contributed to data collection; Lv ZW and Li D conceived the project and reviewed the manuscript; all authors approved the final version of the manuscript; Tong JY and Jiang W contributed equally to this work.
Supported bythe Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai, No. 21ZR1449600; Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, No. 2021SYPDRC064; and the Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82071964.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital institutional review board (Approval No. SHDSYY-2022-4381).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE Guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE Guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Dan Li, PhD, Professor, Department of Nuclear Medicine , Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 107 Yanjiangxi Road, Guangzhou 200072, Guangdong Province, China. plumredlinda@163.com
Received: May 11, 2022 Peer-review started: May 11, 2022 First decision: June 19, 2022 Revised: June 21, 2022 Accepted: September 8, 2022 Article in press: September 8, 2022 Published online: October 14, 2022 Processing time: 153 Days and 18.4 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
The thyroid-gut axis has a great influence on the maintenance of human health.
Research motivation
We know very little about the effects of low-dose ionizing radiation (LDR) on thyroid hormone levels and gut microbiota composition.
Research objectives
To investigate the potential effects by administering low-dose X-ray radiation to male C57BL/6J mice.
Research methods
Peripheral blood was collected for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and stool samples were taken for 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing after irradiation.
Research results
We found that LDR caused changes in thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels in the irradiated mice, suggesting a dose-dependent response in thyroid function to ionizing radiation. No changes in the diversity and richness of the gut microbiota were observed in the LDR-exposed group in comparison to the controls. The abundance of Moraxellaceae and Enterobacteriaceae decreased in the LDR-exposed groups compared with the controls, and the Lachnospiraceae abundance increased in a dose-dependent manner in the radiated groups. And the abundances of uncultured_bacterium_g_Acinetobacter, uncultured_bacterium_o_Mollicutes_RF39, uncultured_bacterium_g_Citrobacter, and uncul-tured_ bacterium_g_Lactococcus decreased in the radiated groups at the genus level, which showed a correlation with radiation exposure and diagnostic efficacy. Analysis of functional metabolic pathways revealed that biological metabolism was predicted to have an effect on functional activities, such as nucleotide metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, and glycan biosynthesis and metabolism. Furthermore, KEGG pathway annotation also suggested that changes in the gut microbiota were related to processing functions, including translation, replication and repair.
Research conclusions
LDR can change thyroid function and the gut microbiota, and changes in the abundances of bacteria are correlated with the radiation dose.
Research perspectives
We administered low-dose X-ray radiation to male C57BL/6J mice to investigate the potential effects. Peripheral blood was collected for ELISA, and stool samples were taken for 16S rRNA gene sequencing after irradiation.
