Radiation and Environmental Biophysics

Cognitive impairment is a remote effect of gamma radiation treatment of malignancies. The major part of the studies on the effect of proton irradiation (a promising alternative in the treatment of radio-resistant tumors and tumors located close to critical organs) on the cognitive abilities of laboratory animals and their relation to morphological changes in the brain is rather contradictory. The aim of this study was to investigate cognitive functions and the dynamics of changes in morphological parameters of hippocampal microglial cells after 7...

The objectives of the present study were to assess Fractal Dimension (FD) values in the mandible cortical bone obtained from digital periapical radiographs (DPR), high-resolution microtomography (µCT), and cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), by two processing methods: binarization (FD.b) and grayscale-based method (FD.f) and, finally, to identify the correlation among these values with other micro-architectural parameters. For this, a prospective study was conducted on 18 healthy individuals (mean age 23 ± 2...

UNSCEAR recently recommended that future research on the lung cancer risk at low radon exposures or exposure rates should focus on more contemporary uranium miners. For this purpose, risk models in the German Wismut cohort of uranium miners were updated extending the follow-up period by 5 years to 1946-2018. The full cohort (n = 58,972) and specifically the 1960 + sub-cohort of miners first hired in 1960 or later (n = 26,764) were analyzed. The 1960 + sub-cohort is characterized by low protracted radon exposure of high quality of measurements...

This article examines the results of a study of radon concentrations in kindergartens in three districts of north-western Bulgaria. For the period from December 2019 to May 2020, passive radon measurements were accomplished in 1490 premises of 130 kindergartens. The highest arithmetic mean (AM) value of 219 Bq m-3 and geometric mean (GM) value of 156 Bq m-3 radon concentration were found in the state kindergartens of the Vratsa district. The radon values for the remaining two districts are as follows: Lovech-AM = 156 Bq m-3 and GM = 114 Bq m-3 ; Montana-AM = 125 Bq m-3 and GM = 88 Bq m-3 ...

This study evaluates the reliability of information obtained by standardized questionnaires used in by personal interviews for estimation of radiation thyroid doses of 1065 individuals in the Belarusian cohort of individuals who were exposed in utero and early life following the Chernobyl accident in April 1986. Data from two interviews conducted in 2012-2017 and in 2018-2022 with mothers, who were pregnant or gave birth shortly after the Chernobyl accident, were analysed. The most reliable answers dealt with various attributes related to residential history...

The radon-prone area of the Adamawa region in Cameroon is characterized by high natural radiation background resulting from the high concentrations of radium-226, thorium-232, and indoor radon. To produce a radon-risk map, radon measurements in soil were carried out in the city of Ngaoundere. The radon activity concentration in soil gas ranged from 256 to 166 kBq m-3 with a mean of 80 kBq m-3 and a standard deviation of 38 kBq m-3 . The area is mostly classified as high risk (80%) according to the Swedish classification, and 20% as medium risk...

The synergy of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) and ionizing radiation (IR), attributed to reactive oxygen species (ROS) and DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) increase, was widely investigated in different cancers, but scarcely in melanoma. Herein, SPIONs were evaluated as radiosensitizers in A-375 human melanoma cells. Moreover, the effect of the combined treatment of SPIONs and gamma irradiation (SPIONs-IR) was assessed at the DNA level, where DSBs induction and their repair capacity were studied...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Although radiotherapy is widely employed in the treatment of various malignancies in oncology patients, its use is limited by the toxic effects it causes in surrounding tissues, including the gastrointestinal system. Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) is a traditional drug reported to possess antioxidant and restorative properties in various studies. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the protective effects of KRG against radiation-associated small intestinal damage. Twenty-four male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly assigned into three groups...

In this work, two cow teeth collected from the Niğde-Köşk Höyük excavation site in Turkey were studied for characterization and dosimetric purposes. Each tooth sample was prepared by applying mechanical and chemical methods to obtain the enamel fractions. To do this, mineralogical and elemental concentration properties of the tooth enamels were investigated by performing X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray measurements (SEM-EDX)...

Neuroblastoma is the most recurring cancer in childhood and adolescence. The SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line is generally adopted for elaborating new therapeutical approaches and/or elaborating strategies for the prevention of central nervous system disturbances. In fact, it represents a valid model system for investigating in vitro the effects on the brain of X-ray exposure using vibrational spectroscopies that can detect early radiation-induced molecular alterations of potential clinical usefulness. In recent years, we dedicated significant efforts in the use of Fourier-transform and Raman microspectroscopy techniques for characterizing such radiation-induced effects on SH-SY5Y cells by examining the contributions from different cell components (DNA, proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates) to the vibrational spectra...

The field of cosmic radiation at low-Earth orbit (LEO) has a complex composition. It always contains a component of secondary charged particles, formed by the products of nuclear interactions of the primary high-energy radiation with the nuclei of spacecraft's shielding material, electronic components and biological matter on board. Generation of this secondary radiation can be observed in some track detectors in the form of "stars" formed by tracks-fragments with a common vertex. The energy absorbed by the medium in the region adjacent to the interaction vertex can reach abnormally high values because of its intersection by several particle fragments...

Recently, paediatric cardiac computed tomography (CCT) has caused concerns that diagnostic image quality and dose reduction may require further improvement. Consequently, this study aimed to establish institutional (local) diagnostic reference levels (LDRLs) for CCT for paediatric patients, and assess the impact of tube voltage on proposed DRLs in terms of the volume computed tomography index (CTDIvol) and dose length product (DLP). In addition, effective doses (EDs) of exposure were estimated. A population of 453 infants, whose mass and age were less than 12 kg and 2 years, respectively, were considered from January 2018 to August 2021...

Candidate ionising radiation exposure biomarkers must be validated in humans exposed in vivo. Blood from patients undergoing positron emission tomography-computed tomography scan (PET-CT) and skeletal scintigraphy (scintigraphy) was drawn before (0 h) and after (2 h) the procedure for correlation analyses of the response of selected biomarkers with radiation dose and other available patient information. FDXR, CDKN1A, BBC3, GADD45A, XPC, and MDM2 expression was determined by qRT-PCR, DNA damage (γH2AX) by flow cytometry, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels by flow cytometry using the 2', 7'-dichlorofluorescein diacetate test in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC)...

A significant source of information on radiation-induced biological effects following in-utero irradiation stems from studies of atomic bomb survivors who were pregnant at the time of exposure in Hiroshima, and to a lesser extent, from survivors in Nagasaki. Dose estimates to the developing fetus for these survivors have been assigned in prior dosimetry systems of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation as the dose to the uterine wall within the non-pregnant adult stylized phantom, originally designed for the dosimetry system DS86 and then carried forward in DS02...

Radiation dose estimations performed by automated counting of micronuclei (MN) have been studied for their utility for triage following large-scale radiological incidents; although speed is essential, it also is essential to estimate radiation doses as accurately as possible for long-term epidemiological follow-up. Our goal in this study was to evaluate and improve the performance of automated MN counting for biodosimetry using the cytokinesis-block micronucleus (CBMN) assay. We measured false detection rates and used them to improve the accuracy of dosimetry...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

The objective of our study was to determine organ doses to estimate the lifetime attributable risk (LAR) of cancer incidence related to chest tomography simulations for Radiotherapy Treatment Planning (RTTP) using patient-specific information. Patient data were used to calculate organ doses and effective dose. The effective dose (E) was calculated by two methods. First, to calculate effective dose in a standard phantom, the collected dosimetric parameters were used with the ImPACT CT Patient Dosimetry Calculator and E was calculated by applying related correction factors...

Space radiation exposure from omnipresent Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) in interplanetary space poses a serious carcinogenic risk to astronauts due to the-limited or absent-protective effect of the Earth's magnetosphere and, in particular, the terrestrial atmosphere. The radiation risk is directly influenced by the quality of the radiation, i.e., its pattern of energy deposition at the micron/DNA scale. For stochastic biological effects, radiation quality is described by the quality factor, [Formula: see text], which can be defined as a function of Linear Energy Transfer (LET) or the microdosimetric lineal energy ([Formula: see text])...