| Summary: | We studied the effect of radiation from computed tomography (CT) scans on differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into neuronal lineage. hESCs were divided into three radiation exposure groups: 0-dose, low-dose, or high-dose exposure. Low dose was accomplished with a single 15 mGy CT dose index (CTDI) CT scan that approximated the dose for abdominal/pelvic CT examinations in adults while the high dose was achieved with several consecutive CT scans yielding a cumulative dose of 500 mGy CTDI. The neural induction was characterized by immunocytochemistry. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and Western blots were used to measure expression of the neuronal markers <i>PAX6</i> and <i>NES</i> and pluripotency marker <i>OCT4</i>. We did not find any visible morphological differences between neural precursors from irradiated and non-irradiated cells. However, quantitative analyses of neuronal markers showed that <i>PAX6</i> expression was reduced following exposure to the high dose compared to 0-dose controls, while no such decrease in <i>PAX6</i> expression was observed following exposure to the low dose. Similarly, a statistically significant reduction in expression of <i>NES</i> was observed following high-dose exposure, while after low-dose exposure, a modest but statistically significant reduction in <i>NES</i> expression was only observed on Day 8 of differentiation. Further studies are warranted to elucidate how lower or delayed expression of <i>PAX6</i> and <i>NES</i> can impact human fetal brain development.
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