TY - JOUR T1 - Myrtus communis reduces radiation-induced genitourinary histopathological damage and apoptosis in rats: TROD-GROG-004 Study AU - Atasoy, Beste AU - Özkurt, Selnur AU - Doğan, Bedriye AU - Özyılmaz, Nagehan AU - Aykaç, Aslı AU - Ertaş, Büşra AU - Şen, Ali AU - Ceylan, Cemile AU - Ercan, Feriha PY - 2025 DA - October Y2 - 2025 JF - Marmara Medical Journal JO - Marmara Med J PB - Marmara University WT - DergiPark SN - 1019-1941 SP - 190 EP - 197 VL - 38 IS - 3 LA - en AB - Objective: To investigate the radioprotective and prophylactic effects of Myrtus communis (MC) in kidney, bladder, and ovary samplesin an animal model.Materials and Methods: Female rats (n=30) were divided into four groups. The control group (C) (n=6) received only oral saline (SF)for four days. Ionizing radiation (IR) groups were organized as follows: “IR group (IR)” (n=8) received oral SF for four days starting onthe day of administration; “MC treatment group (MC-tx)” (n=8) received oral MC for four days beginning on the day of irradiation;and “MC pretreatment group (MC-Ptx)” (n=8) received oral MC for a total of eight days, starting four days before irradiation. MC wasadministered via oral gavage. Irradiation was performed at 10 Gray (Gy) in a single dose. On the fourth day of irradiation, all rats weresacrificed, the tissues were examined histopathologically, and caspase-9 and caspase-3 levels were examined using western blotting toassess mitochondrial apoptosis.Results: Radiation-induced damage decreased across all treatment groups. Caspase-9 and caspase-3 levels were significantly lower inthe MC-Ptx and MC-tx groups compared to the IR group in all tissues (p<0.01).Conclusion: Myrtus communis significantly ameliorated IR-induced damage to genitourinary tissues by both prophylactic andtherapeutic applications. Therefore, the findings of this study may contribute to the development of new strategies in radioprotection. KW - Bladder KW - Kidney KW - Myrtus communis KW - Radioprotection KW - Rats KW - Ovary CR - Kooti W, Servatyari K, Behzadifar M, et al. Effective medicinal plant in cancer treatment, Part 2: review study. J Evid Based Complementary Altern Med 2017;22:982-95. doi: 10.1177/215.658.7217696927. doi: 10.1177/215.658.7217696927 CR - Held KD. Radiobiology for the Radiologist. Hall EJ and Giaccia A J, editors. 6th edition. Radiat Res 2006;166:816-7. CR - Trifiletti DM, Zaorsky NG, eds. Absolute Clinical Radiation Oncology Review. 1st edition. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019. 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