Hong Shan Capsule (HSC) offers radioprotection and modulates acute lethal total-body irradiation-induced alterations of gene expression in rats

Pathway enrichment analysis indicated that these genes were mainly involved in a total of 32 pathways, such as olfactory transduction, uroactive ligand-receptor interaction, pathways in cancer, calcium signaling pathway, vascular smooth muscle contraction, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, peroxisomal proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)signaling pathway, gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) signaling pathway, Wnt signaling pathway, janus kinase-signal transducers and activators of transcription (Jak-STAT) signaling pathway, Notch signaling pathway.Our analysis indicated that the pretreatment of rats with HSC attenuated radiation-induced these pathways, such as multiple MAPK pathways, suggesting that the protective effect of HSC acts mainly through the attenuation of these pathways.