The new study highlights the importance of a particular kind of DNA damage that involves breaks in both DNA strands in the thyroid tumors. The energy from ionizing radiation breaks the chemical bonds in DNA, resulting in a number of different types of damage. Increased risk of thyroid cancer has been one of the most important adverse health effects observed after the accident. In the second study, researchers used next-generation sequencing to profile the genetic changes in thyroid cancers that developed in 359 people exposed as children or in utero to ionizing radiation from radioactive iodine (I-131) released by the Chernobyl nuclear accident and in 81 unexposed individuals born more than nine months after the accident. "The radiation doses in Japan are known to have been lower than those recorded at Chernobyl." "We view these results as very reassuring for people who were living in Fukushima at the time of the accident in 2011," said Dr. As a result, the findings suggest that the ionizing radiation exposure from the accident had a minimal, if any, impact on the health of the subsequent generation. The number of de novo mutations observed in these children were highly similar to those of the general population with comparable characteristics. De novo mutations are genetic changes that arise randomly in a person's gametes (sperm and eggs) and can be transmitted to their offspring but are not observed in the parents.įor the range of radiation exposures experienced by the parents in the study, there was no evidence from the whole-genome sequencing data of an increase in the number or types of de novo mutations in their children born between 46 weeks and 15 years after the accident. The researchers analyzed the genomes of adult children for an increase in a particular type of inherited genetic change known as de novo mutations. The mothers and fathers experienced a range of radiation doses. Each parent was evaluated for protracted exposure to ionizing radiation, which may have occurred through the consumption of contaminated milk (that is, milk from cows that grazed on pastures that had been contaminated by radioactive fallout). One or both of the parents had been workers who helped clean up from the accident or had been evacuated because they lived in close proximity to the accident site. Chanock and his colleagues analyzed the complete genomes of 130 people born between 19 and their 105 mother-father pairs. The first study investigated the long-standing question of whether radiation exposure results in genetic changes that can be passed from parent to offspring, as has been suggested by some studies in animals. The new research builds on this foundation using next-generation DNA sequencing and other genomic characterization tools to analyze biospecimens from people in Ukraine who were affected by the disaster. Studies have provided much of today's knowledge about cancers caused by radiation exposures from nuclear power plant accidents. The Chernobyl accident exposed millions of people in the surrounding region to radioactive contaminants. "In recent years, advances in DNA sequencing technology have enabled us to begin to address some of the important questions, in part through comprehensive genomic analyses carried out in well-designed epidemiological studies." Chanock, M.D., director of NCI's Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG). "Scientific questions about the effects of radiation on human health have been investigated since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and have been raised again by Chernobyl and by the nuclear accident that followed the tsunami in Fukushima, Japan," said Stephen J. The studies were published online in Science on April 22. The findings, published around the 35th anniversary of the disaster, are from international teams of investigators led by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health.
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