Evaluation of proton beam radiation-induced skin injury in a murine model using a clinical SOBP

Pietro Pisciotta; Angelita Costantino; Francesco Paolo Cammarata; Filippo Torrisi; Giovanna Calabrese; Valentina Marchese; Giuseppe Antonio Pablo Cirrone; Giada Petringa; Giusi Irma Forte; Luigi Minafra; Valentina Bravatà; Massimo Gulisano; Fabrizio Scopelliti; Francesco Tommasino; Emanuele Scifoni; Giacomo Cuttone; Massimo Ippolito; Rosalba Parenti; Giorgio Russo

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0233258

Evaluation of proton beam radiation-induced skin injury in a murine model using a clinical SOBP

PLoS One. 2020 May 22;15(5):e0233258. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233258. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Pietro Pisciotta^{1

2

3}, Angelita Costantino⁴, Francesco Paolo Cammarata^{2

3}, Filippo Torrisi^{3

4}, Giovanna Calabrese⁴, Valentina Marchese^{4

5}, Giuseppe Antonio Pablo Cirrone³, Giada Petringa³, Giusi Irma Forte², Luigi Minafra², Valentina Bravatà², Massimo Gulisano^{6

7}, Fabrizio Scopelliti⁸, Francesco Tommasino^{9

10}, Emanuele Scifoni¹⁰, Giacomo Cuttone³, Massimo Ippolito¹¹, Rosalba Parenti^{4

5

7}, Giorgio Russo^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Physics and Astronomy Department, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
² Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology (IBFM-CNR), Cefalù (PA), Italy.
³ National Laboratory of South, National Institute for Nuclear Physics (LNS-INFN), Catania, Italy.
⁴ Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences Department, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
⁵ Centre for Advanced Preclinical in vivo Research (CAPiR), University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
⁶ Laboratory of Synthetic and Systems Biology, Drug Science Department, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
⁷ Molecular Preclinical and Translational Imaging Research Center (IMPRonTe), University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
⁸ Radiopharmacy Laboratory Nuclear Medicine Department, Cannizzaro Hospital, Catania, Italy.
⁹ Department of Physics, University of Trento, Povo, Italy.
¹⁰ Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications (TIFPA), National Institute for Nuclear Physics, INFN, Povo, Italy.
¹¹ Nuclear Medicine Department, Cannizzaro Hospital, Catania, Italy.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the skin deterministic damage due to the effect of proton beam irradiation in mice occurred during a long-term observational experiment. This study was initially defined to evaluate the insurgence of myelopathy irradiating spinal cords with the distal part of a Spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP). To the best of our knowledge, no study has been conducted highlighting high grades of skin injury at the dose used in this paper. Nevertheless these effects occurred. In this regard, the experimental evidence of significant insurgence of skin injury induced by protons using a SOBP configuration will be shown. Skin damages were classified into six scores (from 0 to 5) according to the severity of the injuries and correlated to ED50 (i.e. the radiation dose at which 50% of animals show a specific score) at 40 days post-irradiation (d.p.i.). The effects of radiation on the overall animal wellbeing have been also monitored and the severity of radiation-induced skin injuries was observed and quantified up to 40 d.p.i.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Disease Models, Animal
Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation
Injury Severity Score
Mice
Proton Therapy / adverse effects*
Radiation Injuries / pathology*
Skin / radiation effects*

Grants and funding

The research was supported by the following grants: INFN CSN V - Call “MoVe-IT”; Italian Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca, PRIN 2017, Grant no.: 2017XKWWK9_004 to R.P. and G.R. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.