Cytogenetic effects in lymphocytes from children exposed to radiation fall-out after the Chernobyl accident.

In a previous paper we reported that a group of children exposed to ionizing radiation following the Chernobyl accident exhibited an appreciable number of chromosome breaks and rearrangements reflecting the persistence of a radiation-induced damage. The results suggested that the children were still exposed to radioactive contamination through consumer foodstuff and life styles. In the present paper, 31 exposed children have been considered together with a control group of 11 children with the aim to confirm previous results. All children underwent whole-body counter (WBC) measures and conventional cytogenetic analysis. The frequency of chromosome aberrations detected by conventional cytogenetics in the group of children chronically exposed to low doses of ionizing radiation resulted in significant differences with respect to the control group. The present work suggests that, for these groups of children, even if the frequency of aberrations is very low and the observation of statistically significant differences is consequently a problem, a persistently abnormal cytogenetic picture is still present several years after the accident.