EXPRESSION OF SOME ONCOFETAL ANTIGENS IN PERIPHERAL MONONUCLEAR-CELLSOF HUMAN AND MONKEY EXPOSED TO LOW-DOSES OF IONIZING-RADIATION

Expression of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), trophoblast-specific bet a1-glycoprotein (TSG) and embryonic prealbumin-1 (EPA) on peripheral b lood mononuclear cells (PBM) was studied in the blood of: a) healthy d onors, inhabitants of Kiev, b) persons who participated in the reconst ruction of Chernobyl AS and obtained the doses of combined irradiation up to 0.25 Gy and c) Pavian-gamadril monkeys exposed to the doses of 0.125; 0.250; 0.675; 1.00 Gy. The study was carried out by means of fl ow cytometry with anti-CEA, anti-TSG and anti-EPA rabbit antibodies an d FITC-conjugated donkey anti-rabbit antibodies. 3-20% of PBM of healt hy donors bound Abs specific to CEA, TSG and EPA. Pretreatment with 0. 05 glycine buffer containing 0.14 M NaCl, pH=2.8, didn't influence the PBM capacity to bind these Abs. Persons who participated in the recon struction of Chernobyl AS had either PBM levels undistinguishable from those of healthy donors or didn't have PBM binding anti-CEA, anti-TSG and anti-EPA Abs at all. Content of PBM expressing CEA, TSG and EPA d idn't exceed 10% for each antigen both in unirradiated monkeys and in those after irradiation with 0.125 Gy. Further irradiation resulted in dramatic increase of the studied cells number. In 1 and 2.5 months af ter irradiation the content of PBM expressing these antigens in monkey s irradiated with 1.0 Gy became comparable with that found in unirradi ated animals.