Micronuclei as a marker for medical screening of subjects continuously occupationally exposed to low doses of ionizing radiation

Abstract

Context: Genotoxicity assays are widely employed in human biomonitoring studies to assess genetic damage inflicted by genotoxic agents.

Objective: Evaluation of micronuclei (MN) as a screening marker of occupational ionizing radiation (IR) exposure.

Materials and methods: Using micronucleus test, peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of 402 control and exposed subjects were screened for genetic damage.

Results: The mean frequencies of micronucleus test parameters were significantly higher in exposed persons. Increase of micronucleus yield with duration of exposure (DOE) by 0.303MN/year was revealed.

Discussion and conclusion: The obtained data encourage us to consider MN as valuable markers for preventive medical screening of occupationally exposed groups.

Keywords:

• Micronuclei
• biomarkers
• low-dose ionizing radiation
• occupational exposure
• medical screening

Acknowledgements

We express thanks to all donors who kindly gave their blood to perform this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.