[Study of genetic control of radiosensitivity].

The results of radiation genetics studies are reviewed. The first series of studies concerned the role of heterogeneity of the human population for radiosensitivity of chromosomes in determining the pattern of dose-response relationships; correctness of extrapolation of averaged experimental data to low doses was demonstrated. In the second series of experiments, the radiation-induced adaptive response and the contribution of different factors, including genetic ones, to its formation in human cells were studied. A conclusion was made about impossibility of extrapolating data obtained for cell cultures to an organism as a whole or to a population. The third part of the study was of applied character: cytogenetic methods of biological dosimetry were used to estimate the doses of internal and external irradiation of children living on the territory of the Bryansk oblast contaminated after the Chernobyl accident. The results are discussed in the context of the present-day concepts of genetic control of sensitivity to environmental factors.