SHIMAA F. HEMIDA*, K.N. ABD-EL-NOUR*, H.I. FARAG**, TAMANY H. ABOU AIAD*, M. ALROUBY***, NAHED S. HASSAN****

*Microwave Physics and Dielectrics Department, Physics Division, National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt, e-mail: abdelnourkn@yahoo.com

**Nuclear Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, ”King Abdulaziz” University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

***Nuclear Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, ”King Abdulaziz” University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

****Biochemistry Department, National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract. Radioprotective effect of melatonin against morphological changes in red blood cell of female mice induced by ionizing radiation during cancer treatment was studied. This study was achieved by examining the osmotic fragility and blood film of RBCs membrane. The hemolysis percentage and osmotic fragility of RBCs were found to increase by injection of animals with Ehrlich tumor cells or exposing to γ-irradiation as compared to the control animals. RBCs membrane elasticity was found to decreases as its fragility increases. The images of RBCs indicated some irregularity in the shape of the cells in addition to the sticking of the cells together after injection with tumor cells or exposing to γ-irradiation or both. This irregularity in addition to the changes which occurred in RBCs membrane was found to be omitted by treating the animals with 10 and 30 mg/kg of melatonin.

Key words: Red blood cells, γ-irradiation, antioxidant, melatonin, osmotic fragility, blood film.

Author’s e-mail: abdelnourkn@yahoo.com

Full text: PDF