Chromosomal study in lymphocytes from subjects living or working in buildings constructed with radioactively contaminated rebar

Abstract

It has recently been found that many buildings in Taiwan were constructed with radioactively contaminated rebar, which raised great concern among the residents as well as governmental officials. In order to investigate the possible cytogenetic damage to the residents of contaminated buildings, a G-banding method was carried out on the lymphocytes of 30 radiation-exposed individuals from four families and one office building, as well as 15 control individuals from laboratory personnel. The estimated cumulative radiation doses for the exposed people range from 19.63 to 280.50 mSv. Altogether, 13 females and 17 males belonging to the radiation-exposed group, and 7 females and 8 males in the control group, were included in this study. With the exception of one sample, at least 500 metaphase spreads were scored and analyzed for each individual. All the recognizable structural aberrations of chromosomes or chromatids were recorded and statistically analyzed. Comparison of either percentage of cells with chromosome aberrations or number of aberrated chromosomes per 100 cells between the radiation-exposed and the control groups manifested insignificant differences ( p=0.1145 and 0.0766, respectively). In addition, the chromosomal regions close to the centromere were found to break more frequently than elsewhere in the genome.