Epidemiological and experimental evidence for radiation-induced health effects in the progeny after exposure in utero

Abstract

Purpose

It has been known for many decades that radiation exposure of the developing embryo or fetus may cause two fundamentally different types of severe health effects: on the one hand, radiation may interfere with the normal intrauterine development, on the other hand, radiation may induce leukemia and cancer which become manifest in childhood. A large amount of epidemiological and experimental data has recently been presented which might be used to improve our understanding of underlying mechanisms and setting radiation protection standards. Yet, ecological studies in the populations exposed to increased levels of radiation in regions contaminated by radioactivity released from reactor accidents (Chernobyl, Fukushima) do not provide solid evidence which would contribute to this aim. On the other hand, well designed experimental studies demonstrated the multifactorial mechanisms which lead to different health effects after radiation exposure in utero.

Conclusion

There is no convincing evidence, neither from epidemiological nor experimental data of the existence of a dose threshold for developmental defects after radiation exposure in utero. This must be taken into account in the revision of rules and regulations of radiation protection in medicine.

Keywords:

• Radiation exposure
• gestation
• prenatal effect
• postnatal disabilities
• countermeasures
• mechanisms

Acknowledgement

The data presented in this paper has been partly generated within the EU FP7 CEREBRAD project (GA n 295552)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Mohammed Abderrafi Benotmane

Mohammed Abderrafi Benotmane is Investigating the effect of low-dose levels of radiation response at the prenatal stages of embryonic brain development as well as early postnatal stage to evaluate: (i) the early events after exposure and associate with late adult disease occurrence; (ii) non-cancer effects of radiation including cognitive, cerebrovascular and cardiovascular effects; (iii) congenital abnormalities and cognitive effects induced at different stages of brain development (from prenatal E7 to postnatal PND10 stages) and beneficial use of countermeasures; (iv) the role of radiation on aging in neuronal patterning and axon guidance, analysis of neuronal network architecture in vivo and in vitro; (v) use of advanced technologies for genomics, proteomics and immunohistology to illustrate the underlying mechanisms.

Klaus Ruediger Trott

Klaus Ruediger Trott is interested in the biological effects of radiation on normal and tumor tissues. These effects have a significant impact not only in concepts relative to radiation protection but also in concepts relative to tumor biology.