Compound Derived from Vegetables Shields from Lethal Radiation

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Georgetown University Medical Center researchers have discovered that a compound derived from cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli protects rats and mice from lethal doses of radiation.

Their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), suggests that the compound, which has proven to be safe for humans, may protect normal tissues during radiation therapy for cancer treatment and prevent or mitigate sickness caused by radiation exposure.

The compound, known as DIM (3,3’-diindolylmethane), has previously been found to have cancer preventive properties.

“DIM has been studied as a cancer prevention agent for years, but this is the first indication that DIM can also act as a radiation protector,” says the study’s author, Eliot Rosen, MD, Ph.D., of Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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A Lombardi Center release reports that during the study the researchers irradiated rats with lethal doses of gamma ray radiation. The animals were then treated with a daily injection of DIM for two weeks, starting ten minutes after the radiation exposure.

The result was “stunning”, says Rosen, a professor of oncology, biochemistry and cell & molecular biology, and radiation medicine. “All of the untreated rats died, but well over half of the DIM-treated animals remained alive thirty days after the radiation exposure.”

Rosen adds that DIM also provides protection whether the first injection was administered either up to twenty-four hours before or twenty-four hours after radiation exposure.

“We also showed that DIM protects the survival of lethally irradiated mice,” Rosen says. In addition, irradiated mice treated with DIM had less reduction in red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets — side effects often seen in patients undergoing radiation treatment for cancer.