Publications by authors named "Kai Craenen"

Article Synopsis
  • In Europe, rodent studies are the main method used to assess neurotoxicity, but they are expensive and raise ethical concerns, leading many to seek alternatives.
  • There is a growing public demand for safer chemicals, as many on the market haven't been thoroughly tested for neurotoxic effects, prompting research into New Approach Methods (NAMs) to replace animal testing.
  • The European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC) is working on NAMs to evaluate neurotoxicity, aiming to create faster and cheaper testing methods that can help regulatory agencies and industries improve safety assessments.
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Purpose: To provide a synthesis of the published evidence pertaining to the intergenerational health effects of parental preconceptional exposure to ionizing radiation in humans.

Methods: The study populations are the descendants of those who were exposed to ionizing radiation prior to conception. A Boolean search identified publications for review in accordance with Office of Health Assessment and Translation guidelines.

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Veterans of the British nuclear testing programme represent a population of ex-military personnel who had the potential to be exposed to ionising radiation through their participation at nuclear testing sites in the 1950s and 1960s. In the intervening years, members of this population have raised concerns about the status of their health and that of their descendants, as a consequence. Radiation dose estimates based on film badge measurements of external dose recorded at the time of the tests suggest any exposure to be limited for the majority of personnel, however, only ∼20% of personnel were monitored and no measurement for internalised exposure are on record.

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Previous studies suggested a causal link between pre-natal exposure to ionizing radiation and birth defects such as microphthalmos and exencephaly. In mice, these defects arise primarily after high-dose X-irradiation during early neurulation. However, the impact of sublethal (low) X-ray doses during this early developmental time window on adult behavior and morphology of central nervous system structures is not known.

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Purpose: Exposure to ionizing radiation following environmental contamination (e.g., the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents), radiotherapy and diagnostics, occupational roles and space travel has been identified as a possible risk-factor for cognitive dysfunction.

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Recent studies highlighted a link between ionizing radiation exposure during neurulation and birth defects such as microphthalmos and anophthalmos. Because the mechanisms underlying these defects remain largely unexplored, we irradiated pregnant C57BL/6J mice (1.0 Gy, X-rays) at embryonic day (E)7.

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Folic acid (FA) is often consumed as a food supplement and can be found in fortified staple foods in various western countries. Even though FA supplementation during pregnancy is known to prevent severe congenital anomalies in the developing child (e.g.

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Background: Both epidemiological and animal studies have previously indicated a link between in utero radiation exposure and birth defects such as microphthalmos, anophthalmos, and exencephaly. However, detailed knowledge on embryonic radiosensitivity during different stages of neurulation is limited, especially in terms of neural tube defect and eye defect development.

Methods: To assess the most radiosensitive stage during neurulation, pregnant C57BL6/J mice were X-irradiated (0.

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