Effect of age and gender on radioactive iodine induced apoptosis in rats kidney cells

Objective: To explore the effects of age and gender on renal cell apoptosis induced by high-dose radioactive iodine ( ¹³¹ I) in rats. Methods: Forty-eight rats were divided into 4 groups (aged male group, aged female group, young male group, and young female group) according to age and sex, with 12 rats in each group, each group was randomly divided into control group and experimental group, with a total of 8 groups and 6 rats in each group. All rats in the experimental groups were intraperitoneally injected with 1.85 MBq/2g ¹³¹ I solution, and rats in control group were intraperitoneally injected with the same volume of 0.9% NaCl solution. All the rats were sacrificed after 4 weeks, the kidney sections were removed for immunohistochemical analysis of apoptosis-related proteins such as Bax, Bcl-2 and Caspase-3. Results: 4 weeks later, the expression levels of Caspase-3 and Bax proteins in all the experimental groups were significantly increased, while the expression level of Bcl-2 protein and Bcl-2/Bax ratio were significantly decreased. Compared with the aged rats, the expression level of apoptosis in young rats was increased more significantly, and the difference was statistically significant. There was no significant difference in the apoptosis level between male and female rats. Conclusion: A single high-dose of ¹³¹ I can lead to a significant increase in the level of renal cell apoptosis in rats, and the level of apoptosis is more obvious in young rats than aged rats, but the gender of the rats is not related to the level of apoptosis.