Estimation of the impact of chronic radiation exposure on telomere loss in women’s T lymphocytes

Residents of the Techa Riverside villages were chronically exposed to the wide range of doses more than 60 years ago. Telomeric regions of metaphase chromosomes in the cultured peripheral blood T-lymphocytes were the subject of the research. The study aimed to assess the impact of chronic exposure on telomere loss in exposed women of the Southern Urals using a fluorescent staining method. Chromatid and chromosome telomere loss was determined in three dose subgroups: comparison group (0–0.01 Gy), group of exposed individuals with the dose of 0.2–0.9 Gy, and group of the exposed individuals with the dose of 1–4.6 Gy. In the sample of female residents of the Southern Urals chronically exposed in the range of absorbed doses to RBM of 0–4.6 Gy, it was shown that there were no differences in telomere loss between the comparison group and the group exposed to the dose exceeding 1 Gy (p > 0.33), while the group of individuals exposed to medium doses of 0.2–0.9 Gy was statistically significantly different (p < 0.05). Statistically significant differences between all groups were reported for chromosome telomere loss (p < 0.05). According to the data obtained, telomere loss was found in 99.85% of donor cells. The loss of telomere region on one of the chromatids occurred statistically significantly more often in all the groups. Thus, in the group exposed to the dose of 0.2–0.9 Gy, the average rate of chromatid telomere loss was higher, it was statistically significantly different from that of the other groups of females of the studied age.