Ionizing Radiation-induced Acute Damage in the Salivary Gland

Ionizing radiation (IR) – induced salivary gland damage is a common adverse effect in radiotherapy for patients with head and neck cancers. Currently, there is no effective treatment for the resulting salivary gland hypofunction and xerostomia (dry mouth). Here we profiled the acute gene expression change in the mouse submandibular salivary gland, and defined its damage response patterns at the transcriptome level. Mouse submandibular salivary gland was irradiated at 5Gy, and samples were collected as control (T0), and 6h, 24h post irradiation. Total RNAs were extracted for RNA sequencing analysis.