ROLE OF INTERLEUKIN-6 IN CELLULAR AND SYSTEMIC RESPONSES TO IONIZING RADIATION

Abstract

One cannot imagine the medical practices of the modern world without acknowledging the discovery of X-rays by German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen. The X-rays can pass through different solid materials except for bone and metals. Later this property of x-rays was exploited to create an impression of bones on a gelatin-coated polymer-based film (Xray film). He first captured his wife Bertha’s hand impression on a film in 1895 (Fig;1.1). Later many researchers followed this extraordinary discovery worldwide. After a few months of invention, the radiographs were being created in many places, including the United States and Europe. They were using this technique on battlefields to locate the bullets in injured soldiers. Due to the high voltage required to create X-ray images, the source tube would often get collapsed by high energy. This problem was resolved only after the creation of a Coolidge tube (a large vacuum x-ray tube) in 1913 that later served as a reliable and robust source to generate X-rays. This invention provided a useful tool for the medical industry to image soft tissues and bones having fractures, dislocation, swelling and any alien bodies in the human body can be identified.