Hematopoietic injury is a major cause of mortality in radiation accidents and a primary side effect in patients undergoing radiotherapy. Ionizing radiation (IR)-induced myelosuppression is largely attributed to the injury of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). Coriander is a culinary herb with multiple pharmacological effects and has been widely used in traditional medicine. In this study, flavonoids were identified as the main component of coriander extract with rutin being the leading compound (rutin-enriched coriander extract; RE-CE). We evaluated the radioprotective effect of RE-CE against IR-induced HSPCs injury. Results showed that RE-CE treatment markedly improved survival, ameliorated organ injuries and myelosuppression, elevated HSPCs frequency, and promoted differentiation and proliferation of HSPCs in irradiated mice. The protective role of RE-CE in hematopoietic injury is probably attributed to its anti-apoptotic and anti-DNA damage effect in irradiated HSPCs. Moreover, these changes were associated with reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) and enhanced antioxidant enzymatic activities in irradiated HSPCs. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that RE-CE is able to ameliorate IR-induced hematopoietic injury partly by reducing IR-induced oxidative stress. Full article

Antioxidants are prospective radioprotectors because of their ability to scavenge radiation-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS). The hematopoietic system is widely studied in radiation research because of its high radiosensitivity. In the present study, we describe the beneficial effects of 5-methoxytryptamine-α-lipoic acid (MLA), which was synthesized from melatonin and α-lipoic acid, against radiation-induced hematopoietic injury. MLA administration significantly enhanced the survival rate of mice after 7.2 Gy total body irradiation. The results showed that MLA not only markedly increased the numbers and clonogenic potential of hematopoietic cells but also decreased DNA damage, as determined by flow cytometric analysis of histone H2AX phosphorylation. In addition, MLA decreased the levels of ROS in hematopoietic cells by inhibiting NOX4 expression. These data demonstrate that MLA prevents radiation-induced hematopoietic syndrome by increasing the number and function of and by inhibiting DNA damage and ROS production in hematopoietic cells. These data suggest MLA is beneficial for the protection of radiation injuries. Full article

Emergency management is vital in implementing sustainable community development, for which community planning must include emergency response solutions to potential natural and manmade hazards. To help maintain such solution repository, we investigate effective fuzzy multi-criteria group decision making (FMCGDM) approaches for the complex problems of evaluating alternative emergency response solutions, where weights for decision makers and criteria are unknown due to problem complexity. We employ interval-valued dual hesitant fuzzy (IVDHF) set to address decision hesitancy more effectively. Based on IVDHF assessments, we develop a deviation maximizing model to compute criteria weights and another compatibility maximizing model to calculate weights for decision makers. Then, two ideal-solution-based FMCGDM approaches are proposed: (i) by introducing a synthesized IVDHF group decision matrix into TOPSIS, we develop an IVDHF-TOPSIS approach for fuzzy group settings; (ii) when emphasizing both maximum group utility and minimum individual regret, we extend VIKOR to develop an IVDHF-VIKOR approach, where the derived decision makers’ weights are utilized to obtain group decision matrix and the determined criteria weights are integrated to reflect the relative importance of distances from the compromised ideal solution. Compared with aggregation-operators-based approach, IVDHF-TOPSIS and IVDHF-VIKOR can alleviate information loss and computational complexity. Numerical examples have validated the effectiveness of the proposed approaches. Full article

Hematopoietic injury is the most common side effect of radiotherapy. However, the methods available for the mitigating of radiation injury remain limited. Xuebijing injection (XBJ) is a traditional Chinese medicine used to treat sepsis in the clinic. In this study, we investigated the effects of XBJ on the survival rate in mice with hematopoietic injury induced by γ ray ionizing radiation (IR). Mice were intraperitoneally injected with XBJ daily for seven days after total body irradiation (TBI). Our results showed that XBJ (0.4 mL/kg) significantly increased 30-day survival rates in mice exposed to 7.5 Gy TBI. This effect may be attributable to improved preservation of white blood cells (WBCs) and hematopoietic cells, given that bone marrow (BM) cells from XBJ-treated mice produced more granulocyte-macrophage colony forming units (CFU-GM) than that in the 2 Gy/TBI group. XBJ also decreased the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by increasing glutathione (GSH) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels in serum and attenuated the increased BM cell apoptosis caused by 2 Gy/TBI. In conclusion, these findings suggest that XBJ enhances the survival rate of irradiated mice and attenuates the effects of radiation on hematopoietic injury by decreasing ROS production in BM cells, indicating that XBJ may be a promising therapeutic candidate for reducing hematopoietic radiation injury. Full article