Toxic effects and foundation of proton radiation on the early-life stage of zebrafish development

Zebrafish is an ideal model for the toxicity studies on medicines and environmental genetic toxicants.Different development defects were observed in zebrafish embryos exposed to -ray and heavy ion (carbon or iron) irradiation We used microarrays to detail the gene expression situation after radiation. Proton beam irradiation was carried out at the terminal of the heavy ion accelerator facility at Peking University. The proton beam energy was 8 MeV/u, and the dose rate was 7.5 Gy/min.To detect the gene expression, three experimental groups were established as follows: zebrafish embryos collected from wild type breeding pairs, pooled, and allowed to develop for 24 h. One group of, 60 embryos was withdrawn to serve as the non-irradiated control (CK). To investigate the radiation response, two other groups of, 60 embryos each were withdrawn and irradiated with 12 (IR1) or 15 Gy (IR2) of protons. Embryos in all three groups were then allowed to grow and develop at 28.5 ◦C using standard maintenance protocols.