Author: M.G. Bolotnikova, N.A. Koshurnikova, N.S. Komlevaet al.
Reference: Sci. Total. Environ. — 1994. — 142: — 29–31.
Keywords: cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease
Abstract: An epidemiologic retrospective study was conducted on the basis of a personnel registry, including 9373 male workers who had started to work at the radiochemical plant during the period from 1948 to 1972, inclusive. Male mortality from cardiovascular disease proved to be 271.1 cases in 100,000 persons/year on average. The age-standardized mortality amounted to 502.5 cases in 100,000 persons/year, which is significantly lower than that of the entire male population. Regarding the structure of mortality from cardiovascular diseases in the studied male groups, the mortality rate from ischemic heart disease (IHD) was 63.7% and that from cerebrovascular disease 21.5%, compared with 57% and 30%, respectively, for the general male population. Mortality from cardiovascular diseases is lower in the study groups than in the general public and does not depend on the external gamma-irradiation dose.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8178133
Author: V.K. Ivanov, A.I. Gorski, M.A. Maksioutov et al.
Reference: Health Phys. — 2001. — Vol. 81, № 5. — P. 514–521.
Keywords: liquidator, malignant neoplasm, cardiovascular disease, injury
Abstract: This paper presents results of the analysis of mortality among Chernobyl accident emergency workers who are resident in Russia. The analysis is based on information for the cohort of emergency workers (males) from six regions of Russia including 65,905 persons with documented external doses in the range 0.005-03 Sv. These data were gathered during the period 1991 to 1998 and cover a total of 426,304 follow-up person-y. In this period, 4,995 deaths occurred in the cohort under study. The mortality analysis was performed for four groups of causes of death (ICD-9 codes): (1) malignant neoplasms (140-239); (2) cardiovascular diseases (390-459); (3) injuries, poisoning and violent deaths, (800-999); and (4) the remainder (other than the above). The standardized mortality rate for groups 1, 3, and 4 is less than unity and varies from 0.6 to 0.9. For group 2 (death from cardiovascular diseases) the standardized mortality rate conforms with the control within 95% confidence intervals. The control was the mortality rate (males) for the corresponding ages in Russia in general and the internal control, the spontaneous mortality among emergency workers, derived from the equation of the observed and expected number of cases in the followed up cohort. Dose response of mortality was studied. Statistically significant radiation risks were obtained for mortality from malignant neoplasms (515 cases) and cardiovascular diseases (1,728 cases). The values of the excess relative risk per unit dose (ERR Sv(-1)) for malignant neoplasms and cardiovascular diseases are estimated as 2.11 (1.31, 2.92 95% CI) and 0.54 (0.18,0.91 95% CI) (for external control), 2.04 (0.45, 4.31 95% CI) and 0.79 (0.07, 1.64 95% CI) (for internal control), respectively. The risk of death from all noncancer causes is close to zero and not statistically significant
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11669204
Author: Monje M.L. Palmer T.
Reference : Curr. Opin. Neurol. ― 2003. ― Vol. 16, № 2. ― P. 129–134.
Keywords: vasculopathy, CNS, hippocampal formation, cranium
Abstract: PURPOSE OF REVIEW: For many cancers, survival depends on aggressive combined therapies, but treatment comes at a price. Children and adults who receive radiotherapy involving the brain frequently experience a progressive cognitive decline. The overt pathologies of radiation injury such as white matter necrosis or vasculopathy are the obvious “smoking guns” of dysfunction. However, many patients exhibit severe learning and memory deficits with no overt pathologic changes. This is especially true when the radiation field involves the temporal lobes. The cause of this debilitating dysfunction is currently unknown and untreatable.
RECENT FINDINGS: Within the temporal lobe, the hippocampal formation plays a central role in short-term learning and memory–the functions most notably affected by radiation. Recent work has also shown that hippocampus-dependent learning and memory are strongly influenced by the activity of neural stem cells and their proliferative progeny. The hippocampal granule cell layer undergoes continuous renewal and restructuring by the addition of new neurons. Radiation at much lower doses than that needed to injure the more resistant post-mitotic neurons and glia of the brain has been found to affect these highly proliferative progenitors severely. The stem/progenitor cell is so sensitive to radiation that a single low dose to the cranium of a mature rat is sufficient to ablate hippocampal neurogenesis.
SUMMARY: Progressive learning and memory deficits following irradiation may be caused by the accumulating hippocampal dysfunction that results from a long-term absence of normal stem/progenitor activity. Here, the authors describe the nature of this stem cell dysfunction and contemplate how restoration of stem/progenitor cell activity might be approached in experimental models and, eventually, the clinic.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12644738
Author: Mickley G.A.
Reference: Military radiobiology / J.J. Conklin, R.I. Walker (Eds.). ― San-Diego: Academic Press, Inc., 1987. ― P. 303–319.
Abstract: Describes psychological aspects of injuries of wars. In all
wars, a certain portion of injuries are related to psychology. Full text available on web.
URL: http://books.google.co.jp/books?id=q_JEJrG-Gq8C&pg=PA303&lpg=PA303&dq=Psychological+effects+of+nuclear+warfare+mickley&source=bl&ots=EgcZNezYJk&sig=kD3Qr1qm7a8yW5b_WOk8FhN0TH0&hl=ja&sa=X&ei=RSTzUemjAs3hkAWy-4CYBw&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Psychological%20effects%20of%20nuclear%20warfare%20mickley&f=false
Title: Radioactive cesium (134Cs and 137Cs) content in human placenta after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident
Author: Makoto Suzuki, Hiroshi Terada, Nobuya Unno, Ichiro Yamaguchi, Naoki Kunugita, Hisanori Minakami
Reference: Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research, 2 JUL 2013
DOI: 10.1111/jog.12071
Keywords: cesium;human placenta;nuclear power plant accident
Abstract: The degree of contamination with radioactive cesium (134Cs and 137Cs) in the human placenta after the accident at Fukushima nuclear power plant (FNP), which occurred on 11 March 2011, has not been assessed. Material and Methods:134Cs and 137Cs contents were determined in 10 placentas from 10 women who gave birth to term singleton infants during the period between October 2011 and August 2012 using high-purity germanium detectors for gamma ray spectrometry. Five women resided within 50 km of FNP (neighbor group) and gave birth by the end of February 2012, while the other five women resided within 210–290 km of FNP (distant group) and gave birth in July and August 2012.
URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jog.12071/abstract
Author: E. Ron, B. Modan, S. Flora et al.
Reference: Am. J. Epidemiol. — 1982. — Vol. 116. — P. 149–160.
Keywords: tinea captis treatment, radiation therapy, neurological consequences
Abstract: Between 1950 and 1960 about 20,000 israeli children were treated for tinea capitis by x-ray therapy as part of a large public health campaign to eradicate the disease. Dosimetric studies determined that these children were subjected to a mean brain dose of 130 rads. Almost 20 years later, possible radiation effects on the central nervous system were evaluated by comparing several measures of mental and brain function in approximately 11,000 of the irradiated children and in two nonirradiated, tinea-free comparison groups: (a) ethnic, sex- and age-matched individuals from the general population, and (b) siblings. While not all comparisons were statistically significant, there was a consistent trend for the irradiated subjects to exhibit signs of central nervous system inpairment more often than either comparison group. The irradiated children had lower examination scores on scholastic aptitude, intelligence quotient (IQ) and psychologic tests, completed fewer school grades, and had an increased risk for mental hospital admissions for certain disease categories. A slightly higher frequency of mental retardation was also suggested. These-long-lasting scholastic and mental health effects lead the authors to conclude that radiation to the immature brain may cause damage to the central nervous system.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7102650
Author: F.A. Mettler, A.C. Upton (Eds.).
Reference: 2nd ed. — Philadelphia: Saunders W. B. Company, 1995. — 464 p
Author: McGale P., Darby S.C.
Reference: Radiat. Res. — 2005. — Vol. 163, № 3. — P. 247–257.
Keywords: circulatory system, atomic bomb survivors
Abstract: Recent analyses of mortality among atomic bomb survivors have suggested a linear dose–response relationship between ionizing radiation and diseases of the circulatory system for exposures in the range 0–4 Sv. If confirmed, this has substantial implications. We have therefore reviewed the published literature to see if other epidemiological data support this finding. Other studies allowing a comparison of the rates of circulatory disease in individuals drawn from the same population but exposed to ionizing radiation at different levels within the range 0–5 Gy or 0–5 Sv were identified through systematic literature searches. Twenty-six studies were identified. In some, disease rates among those exposed at different levels may have differed for reasons unrelated to radiation exposure, while many had low power to detect effects of the relevant magnitude. Among the remainder, one study found appreciable evidence that exposure to low-dose radiation was associated with circulatory diseases, but five others, all with appreciable power, did not. We conclude that the other epidemiological data do not at present provide clear evidence of a risk of circulatory diseases at doses of ionizing radiation in the range 0–4 Sv, as suggested by the atomic bomb survivors. Further evidence is needed to characterize the possible risk.
URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1667/RR3314
Author: Manton K.G., Volovik S., Kulminski A.
Reference: Curr Alzheimer Res. — 2004. — Vol. 1, № 4. — 277–293.
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, CNS, ROS, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl, Ionizing radiation, ambiphilic, mitochondria, radionuclides, neurons, astrocytes, microglia
Abstract: Neurodegenerative processes associated with Alzheimer’s disease are complex and involve many CNS tissue types, structures and biochemical processes. Factors believed involved in these processes are generation of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), associated inflammatory responses, and the bio-molecular and genetic damage they produce. Since oxidative processes are essential to energy production, and to other biological functions, such as cell signaling, the process is not one of risk exposure, as for cigarettes and cancer, but one where normal physiological processes operate out of normal ranges and without adequate control. Thus, it is necessary to study the ambiphilicity that allows the same molecule (e.g., beta amyloid) to behave in contradictory ways depending upon the physiological microenvironment. To determine ways to study this in human populations we review evidence on the effects of an exogenous generator of ROS, ionizing radiation, in major population events with radionuclides (e.g., Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Chernobyl Reactor accident; environmental contamination in Chelyabinsk (South Urals) where plutonium was produced, and in the nuclear weapons test area in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan). The age evolution, and traits, of neurodegenerative processes in human populations in these areas, may help us understand how IR affects the CNS. After reviewing human population evidence, we propose a model of neurodegeneration based upon the complexity of CNS functions.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15975057
Author: Mahmoud-Ahmed A.S., Atkinson S., Wong C.S.
Reference: Radiat Res. ― 2006. ― Vol. 165, № 2. ― P. 142–154.
Keywords: gene expression, RNA, mice
Abstract: Acute changes in the gene expression profile in mouse brain after exposure to ionizing radiation were studied using microarray analysis. RNA was isolated at 0.25, 1, 5 and 24 h after exposure to 20 Gy and at 5 h after exposure of the whole brain of adult mice to 2 or 10 Gy. RNA was hybridized onto 15K cDNA microarrays, and data were analyzed using GeneSpring and Significant Analysis of Microarray. Radiation modulated the expression of 128, 334, 325 and 155 genes and ESTs at 0.25, 1, 5 and 24 h after 20 Gy and 60 and 168 at 5 h after 2 and 10 Gy, respectively. The expression profiles showed dose- and time-dependent changes in both expression levels and numbers of differentially modulated genes and ESTs. Seventy-eight genes were modulated at two or more times. Differentially modulated genes were associated with 12 different classes of molecular function and 24 different biological pathways and showed time- and dose-dependent changes. The change in expression of four genes (Jak3, Dffb, Nsep1 and Terf1) after irradiation was validated using quantitative real-time PCR. Up-regulation of Jak3 was observed in another mouse strain. In mouse brain, there was an increase of Jak3 immunoreactivity after irradiation. In conclusion, changes in the gene profile in the brain after irradiation are complex and are dependent on time and dose, and genes with diverse functions and pathways are modulated.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16435913