Analysis of genomic instability in the offspring of fathers exposed to low doses of ionizing radiation.

Transgenerational genomic instability was studied in nonirradiated children born from fathers who were irradiated with low doses of ionizing radiation while working as clean-up workers at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (liquidators) and nonirradiated mothers from nuclear families. Aberrant cell frequencies (ACFs), chromosomal type aberration frequencies, and chromatid break frequencies (CBFs) in the lymphocytes of fathers-liquidators, and their children were significantly higher when compared with the control group (P < 0.05).

[Genomic instability in chidren born after the Chernobyl nuclear accident (in vivo and in vitro studies)].

Analysis of peripheral blood lymphocytes in children born after the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the period from 1987 to 2004 (permanent residents of territories contaminated with radionuclides, n = 92; and children of irradiated fathers-liquidators, n = 88)) revealed increased levels of aberrant cells (ACs) and aberrations of the chromosomal type as compared to the control (P < 0.05). In three subgroups of children with different initial AC frequencies (children with high AC frequencies, > or = 3%; children with medium AC frequencies, 2%; and children with low AC frequencies, > or = 1%), the levels of aberrations of the chromosomal type are increased as compared to the control (P < 0.

Transgenerational genomic instability in children of irradiated parents as a result of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident.

The study of families irradiated as a result of the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant revealed significantly increased aberrant genomes frequencies (AGFs) not only in irradiated parents (n=106, p<0.01), but also in their children born after the accident (n=159, p<0.05).

[Transgenerational genomic instability in children of liquidators of the accident at the ChNPP (cytogenetic and immunogenetic characteristics)].

A complex of cytogenetic and of immunogenetic study of the state of the lymphocyte genomes in the liquidators of the ChNPP accident and their unirradiated children has been carried out for the first time. Increased frequencies of the chromosome aberrations, of gene mutations (TCR mutations) and of predictors of apoptosis (cells with CD95+ immunophenotype) have been revealed in both generations. The analysis of correlations between the parameters under study has demonstrated distinctive features characteristic of induction of genomic instability in the organism of unirradiated children as compared to their fathers--liquidators directly exposed to radiation.

[The problem of the transgeneration phenomenon of genome instability in sick children of different age groups after the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant].

A complex genetic examination of children which belong to two cohorts and their parents were carried out. The first cohort included children and constantly living on territories contaminated with radionuclides (Novozybkov district, Bryansk region). They were subdivided in groups according to the ontogenetic age periods of development of their parents at the time of the Chernobyl accident.