Study of Non-Targeted Effects Induced on Cell Lines Using Low Doses of Ionizing Radiation

The LNT - Linear-no-Threshold model, used to analyze dose-effect ratios after biological irradiation exposures, theorizes that effects produced are directly proportional to the irradiating doses, with a linear without threshold pattern. Nevertheless, there is a relevant number of evidence, accumulated essentially over the last decade, suggesting that risks inherent to low doses of irradiation cannot be strictly predicted by the LNT model. Among those, there is a significant number of experimental evidence for a variety of low dose induced biological phenomena, which seems to have an impact on modulating the shape of dose-effect curves, namely for expositions below 0.2 Sv, causing the deviation of LNT model. Accumulated evidence demonstrate that cell irradiation induces biological effects, both to directly irradiated cells as well as to cells not exposed to any kind of ionizing radiation, present in a mixed population. This assumption is breaking the classical idea, based on the belief that damage to cellular DNA is only induced by purely ionizing events in cells directly irradiated. This phenomenon, based on cell communication pathways, is termed “Bystander Effect” - clearly highlighted between the “non-targeted effects” of irradiation not considered by the LNT model - being considered one of the biggest paradigm shifts of modern radiobiology.Allied Health Technologies in general and Medical Imaging in particular are medical specialities where the intrinsic dynamic nature and the absolute need for the related health professionals to entirely comply with an external environment in constant evolution, with technical and regulatory issues obliging the provision of a solid basic education to be complemented with an adequate long-life learning attitude. At our institution the “Bologna Process” was considered as a great opportunity to re-think all the educative process, and the Nuclear Medicine Degree Course chose the moment to work on its adaptation regarding the real nature of the competences perceived as needed – and so naturally expected as an intrinsic characteristic from the new graduates - as well as the possible best solutions to optimize the correlation between the formal and informal education received, the “real world” needs and the preparation towards its predictable evolutio