Radioprotective properties of sodium humate in radiation-induced mutagenesis in cultured lymphocytes of thyroid cancer patients

To investigate the effect of sodium humate on the level of cytogenetic damage in culture of lymphocytes of patients with thyroid cancer after γ-irradiation. Metaphase analysis of chromosome aberrations in cultured peripheral blood lymphocytes of 10 individuals with thyroid cancer was performed after irradiation of lymphocytes in vitro at a dose of 1 Gy from (137)Cs source at the early G0 phase of cell cycle. Sodium humate was added to cell culture for 30 ± 15 min after phytohemagglutinin stimulation at concentrations of 10 and 100 μg/ml. Sodium humate exhibited antimutagenic properties. The preparation at a concentration of 10 μg/ml was more effective than at a concentration of 100 μg/ml, reducing the average incidence of radiation-induced chromosome aberrations by 51.88 and 38.77%, respectively. The most pronounced antimutagenic effect of sodium humate was the reduction of the frequency of chromosomal type aberrations, however, such efficiency varied between individual patients with thyroid cancer. Sodium humate could be considered as a potential therapeutic modifier of radiation damage.