Protection of melatonin against long‐term radon exposure‐caused lung injury

Abstract Radon is one of the major pathogenic factors worldwide. Recently, epidemiological studies have suggested that radon exposure plays an important role in lung injury, which could further cause cancer. However, the toxic effects and underlying mechanism on lung injury are still not clear. Here, we identified the detailed toxic effects of long‐term radon exposure. Specifically, the manifestations were inflammatory response and cell apoptosis in dose‐ and time‐dependent manners. In detail, it caused the mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress as determined by the abnormal levels of mitochondrial DNA copy number, adenosine triphosphate, mitochondrial membrane potential, superoxide dismutase, and cycloxygenase‐2. Furthermore, we found that melatonin treatment ameliorated mitochondrial dysfunction and attenuated the levels of oxidative stress caused by long‐term radon exposure, which could further inhibit the lung tissue apoptosis as determined by the decreased levels of cleaved caspase 3. Our study would provide potential therapeutic application of melatonin on lung tissue injury caused by long‐term radon exposure.