Radiation-induced intestinal injury (RIII) is a serious complication of radiotherapy and is closely related to mitochondrial dysfunction, yet its mechanism remains unclear. In this study, a series of mitochondrial-related differentially expressed genes were identified in the RIII model, whose core functional modules include mitochondrial-coding genes and apoptosis-related genes. Histopathological staining analysis indicated that RIII shows a significant dose- and time-dependent aggravation. Experiments showed Mrm2 was continuously upregulated after irradiation in vivo. Mrm2 may serve as a key regulatory factor for mitochondrial dysfunction in RIII.
Zhang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.