Fig. 2.

Priming of peripheral monocytes for oxidative stress after radiation.

(A) Patient profiles. Abbreviations: NSCLC; non-small cell lung cancer, SCLC; small cell lung cancer. (B) Timing of blood sampling after radiation therapy (RT). (C-E) CD14⁺ peripheral blood monocytes were collected from patients before radiation treatment (pre-RT), 2–3 weeks after RT, and 3 months after RT, and p90RSK activity was determined with and without H₂O₂ (200 μM for 10 min) stimulation by flow cytometry as described in Methods. (C) The basal (i.e. no H₂O₂ stimulation). p90RSK activity is shown as the level of phospho-p90RSK over the total p90RSK. (D) The p90RSK activity after H₂O₂ stimulation at the 3 time points were measured, and the ratio between these values and the basal values at each time point for each patient is plotted. Note that RT caused priming of these cells to H₂O₂. (E) p90RSK levels in CD14⁺ -positive cells. No significant differences were detected. Mean ± SD, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.