CYTOGENETIC CHANGES IN SCHOOLCHILDREN RESIDING IN ECOLOGICALLY ADVERSE REGIONS OF KAZAKHSTAN

Abstract

In Kazakhstan, due to the strengthening of the geopolitical role in the international arena and active industrial development, negative environmental impacts have intensified in recent years. Many regions are environmentally unfavorable and carry the risk of an increase in the incidence of living in these conditions of the population. Numerous deviations in the health of the community create the conditions for genetic polymorphism and the growth of certain groups of diseases characteristic of regions with environmental pollution. Long-term environmental pollution is the reason for the increase in the rate of the mutation process and the volume of the genetic load in the human population. The purpose of this study is to show the influence of dominant environmental factors in distant regions of Kazakhstan on cytogenetic disturbances in the body of the younger generation. Students from different schools aged 16 to 18 years living near the Semipalatinsk test site of the East Kazakhstan region and in the Aral region of the Kyzylorda region took part in the studies. The results of the study show that the oral epithelial cells in two-thirds of the examined adolescents living in environmentally unfavorable conditions either near the Semipalatinsk Test Site or in the Aral Sea region of Kazakhstan revealed a wide range of cytogenetic disorders. The most significant percentage of violations associated with the formation of micronuclei, protrusions, and apoptosis, was detected in urban students living 150 km from the Semipalatinsk Test Site. When comparing the data of urban and rural students, the predominant development of cytological disorders was revealed, such as nuclear destruction (karyorrhexis, karyolysis, and apoptosis) in rural adolescents, which indicates the ongoing negative impact of the closed Semipalatinsk Test Site and the salinization of the Aral Sea on the health of the younger generation of children.