Study on bystander effects induced by radiation

Radiation can cause a lot of biological effects in irradiated cells, such as mutations,changes of gene expression, cell growth and so on. But these effects can also be observed in non-irradiated cells. This phenomenon is termed as bystander effect. Up to now, the mechanisms of bystander effects have been known very little. It is believed that extracellular factors or intercellular communications play a very important role in the process.