May 2019
Project: Effects of glucan in animals and humans
Authors: Vaclav Vetvicka
University of Louisville
The effects of glucan on damaged bone marrow, including restoration of lymphopenia and neutropenia caused by irradiation, led to suggestions that glucan might be widely used as radioprotectant that could mitigate the biological effects of radiation exposure in case of radiation accidents such as Chernobyl or Fukushima. Not surprisingly, glucan as radioprotectant was also the subject of army research in numerous countries. However, later observations reported that the same effects can be also found in bone marrow suppressed by cytotoxic drugs which diverted the attention to the clinical practice, because these effects offered significant help for patients undergoing chemotherapeutic treatment, as damage to leucopoiesis represents a major part of the development of the post-irradiation or post-chemotherapy hematopoietic syndrome. In addition, protection against ionizing radiation is of paramount importance during unavoidable or accidental exposure. Therefore, the pharmacologic protection against bone marrow damage is of considerable interest, with the development of novel and effective medical approaches to combat radiation or cytotoxic damage. Glucans seem to offer an ideal solution as they are inexpensive, free from side effects and capable of significantly protecting against radiation through restoration of the bone marrow with cell production.