There is a growing concern about the serious harm of radioactive materials, which are widely used in energy production, scientific research, medicine, industry and other areas. In recent years, owing to the great side effects of anti-radiation drugs, research on the radiation protectants has gradually expanded from the previous chemicals to the use of natural anti-radiation drugs and functional foods. Some reports have confirmed that anthocyanins are good antioxidants, which can effectively eliminate free radicals, but studies on the immunoregulatory and anti-radiation effects of anthocyanins from lingonberry (ALB) are less reported. In this experiment, mice were given orally once daily for 14 consecutive days before exposure to 6 Gy of gamma-radiation and were sacrificed on the 7th day post-irradiation. The results showed that the selected dose of extract did not lead to acute toxicity in mice; while groups given anthocyanins orally were significantly better than radiation control group according to blood analysis; pretreatment of anthocyanins significantly (p < 0.05) enhanced the thymus and spleen indices and spleen cell survival compared to the irradiation control group. Pretreatment with anthocyanins before irradiation significantly reduced the numbers of micronuclei (MN) in bone marrow polychromatic erythrocytes (PCEs). These findings indicate that anthocyanins have immunostimulatory potential against immunosuppression induced by the radiation.

A novel chitosan microsphere for encapsulating pine cone polyphenols (PP) from P. koraiensis was successfully prepared using an emulsion crosslinking technique. The characteristics of pine polyphenol-loaded microspheres (PPM) were determined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and a laser particle size detector. It was found that PPMs were spherical in shape with uniform particle size distribution patterns. The drug content and encapsulation rate of the microspheres were 7.47% and 73.6%, respectively, at a Ch/GA mass ratio of 0.7. The animal experiments showed that PPM had a stronger radiation protective effect than PP. PPM significantly increased the immune organ indices, the quantity of marrow DNA, the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, the splenocyte proliferation index, and the phagocytosis activity of monocytes. PPM also decreased the numbers of micronuclei in bone marrow cells and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in plasma in mice exposed to ⁶⁰Co γ-irradiation. In addition, gender differences in biological responses to exposure to radiation were observed.

Understanding the protection mechanism of 5'-AMP requires comprehensive knowledge of the proteins expressed during the period that the body is exposed to irradiation. Proteomics provides the tools for such analyses. Here, the experimental ICR mice were divided into three groups (normal group, model group and 5'-AMP + irradiation group). After different treatment, the hepatic total protein of each animal in three groups was separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). 2-DE analysis revealed fifty-eight protein spots were differentially expressed in comparison to three groups. From 58 protein spots, we selected nine spots to identify by MALDI-TOF-MS and received credible results. They were determined to be type I arginase, annexin A5, regucalcin, catalase, Tpm3 protein, Pdia4 protein, 14-3-3 protein epsilon, NAD-Malate dehydrogenase and heat shock protein 90. Considering the characteristic of these proteins, we proposed a possible protection pathway.