Parent's Exposure to Radiation May Change Offspring's Genes
Parent's Exposure to Radiation May Change Offspring's Genes
May 3, 2000 -- Researchers have found that radiation can change how a mouse's genes work, and that the change can be passed along to its children and grandchildren, possibly increasing their risks of cancer and other inherited diseases. If this also happens in humans, radiation and workplace-safety inspectors may have to start thinking about delayed effects in future generations, not just the cancer risk to exposed individuals.
Russian and British researchers report in the journal Nature that a mouse exposed to a single high dose of radiation develops unstable areas in its genes, and these changes can be passed down through at least two generations.
"Our study was in mice with acute, high-dose radiation exposure. In most human situations apart from accidents such as Chernobyl, exposure is chronic and to low doses of radiation," study author Yuri F. Debrova, PhD, tells WebMD. Debrova is a researcher in the department of genetics at the University of Leicester in England and at the V. I. Vavilov Institute of General Genetics in Moscow.
Two places where exposure to high-dose radiation might occur are uranium mines and nuclear facilities, and other investigators are studying workers in both areas.
L. Michelle Bennett, PhD, a specialist in the molecular causes of cancer, tells WebMD that this study is the first to show that radiation-exposed parents can pass along changes in the control systems that regulate many genes, not just changes in an individual gene. Bennett is a senior staff fellow in the Laboratory of Molecular Carcinogenesis at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Bennett likens this inherited signal to an e-mail attachment that is passed on along with the basic genetic information from the parent. If the "attachment" makes the cell's genetic machinery unstable, it might increase the risk of cancer.
Parent's Exposure to Radiation May Change Offspring's Genes
May 3, 2000 -- Researchers have found that radiation can change how a mouse's genes work, and that the change can be passed along to its children and grandchildren, possibly increasing their risks of cancer and other inherited diseases. If this also happens in humans, radiation and workplace-safety inspectors may have to start thinking about delayed effects in future generations, not just the cancer risk to exposed individuals.
Russian and British researchers report in the journal Nature that a mouse exposed to a single high dose of radiation develops unstable areas in its genes, and these changes can be passed down through at least two generations.
"Our study was in mice with acute, high-dose radiation exposure. In most human situations apart from accidents such as Chernobyl, exposure is chronic and to low doses of radiation," study author Yuri F. Debrova, PhD, tells WebMD. Debrova is a researcher in the department of genetics at the University of Leicester in England and at the V. I. Vavilov Institute of General Genetics in Moscow.
Two places where exposure to high-dose radiation might occur are uranium mines and nuclear facilities, and other investigators are studying workers in both areas.
L. Michelle Bennett, PhD, a specialist in the molecular causes of cancer, tells WebMD that this study is the first to show that radiation-exposed parents can pass along changes in the control systems that regulate many genes, not just changes in an individual gene. Bennett is a senior staff fellow in the Laboratory of Molecular Carcinogenesis at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Bennett likens this inherited signal to an e-mail attachment that is passed on along with the basic genetic information from the parent. If the "attachment" makes the cell's genetic machinery unstable, it might increase the risk of cancer.
Vital Information:
- Researchers report that radiation can change how a mouse's genes work, and these changes can be passed on to its children and grandchildren.
- If this is found to be true in people, exposure to high doses of radiation could increase the risks of cancer and other inherited diseases among future generations.
- Most people are exposed only to low doses of radiation, but they could encounter higher doses through accidents at uranium mines and nuclear facilities.