Nuclear Abnormalities of Lymphocytes as the Simplest Markers for Bioindication Test in Case of Mass Casualty Events Involving Radiation Exposure

Abstract

Radiation exposure leads to a large number of victims who seek medical help in the first hours. To provide medical care, it is necessary to correctly establish the fact and dose of radiation by bioindication and biodosimetry methods. Lymphocytes containing nuclear anomalies are easily detected cells of peripheral blood and are suitable as objects of bioindication in the case of radioactive exposure to a large number of people. Among these anomalies we distinguish micronuclei, "tailed" nuclei, nucleoplasmatic bridges, dumbbell-shaped nuclei, etc. This review observes the main types of these nuclear anomalies of lymphocytes in the light of their common origin from dicentric chromosomes. We recommend using these alterations in peripheral blood lymphocytes nuclei as the simplest biomarkers in the framework of bioindication tests when it is necessary to work with a large number of victims.

Gold Mining and Genotoxic Effects on Vicuñas: A Comparative Study of Buccal Cells and Lymphocytes

“…Lastly, "tail" type (1.94%) (Fig. 3e), which has a similar origin to MNs, implying DNA breaks (Kravtsov et al 2017).…”

“…Furthermore, "dumbbell-shaped" type (8.11%) (Fig. 3f), indicate cell division at low temperature and nutrient scarcity, but also genetic instability (Kravtsov et al 2017), and "apoptotic" type (3%) (Fig. 3l), which is programmed cell death, but may also indicate cytotoxicity (Nersesyan et al 2022).…”

“…NA analysis complements MN analysis, so these were observed in tandem with MNs. In buccal cells we looked for the presence of bridges, constrictions, elongated nuclei, kidney-shaped nuclei, notched, lobed nuclei, binucleated, in prophase and apoptotic cells while in lymphocytes we looked for the presence of bridges, buds, tails, dumbbell-shaped nuclei, irregularly shaped, fused, horseshoe-shaped, circular-shaped, binucleated, apoptotic cells and necrotic cells (Torrez-Bugarín and Ramos-Ibarra 2013; George et al 2014;Fenech et al 2016;Kravtsov et al 2017;Nersesyan et al 2022). The frequency of nuclear abnormalities (NA%) for each cell type was calculated with the following formula (Drumond et al 2012):…”

Could scoring tailed and dumbbell-shaped nuclei increase the sensitivity of micronucleus analysis as a biomarker of radiation exposure?

“…The two review articles included in this review were published by Kravtsov et al (2017) and Anbuman et al (2017). These two articles explained in detail all types of nuclear abnormalities found in blood smear lymphocytes, including MNi, NPBs, tailed, and dumbbell-shaped nuclei.…”

“…In that regard, Dr. Viacheslav Kravtsov, the main author of most of the articles included in this review, believes that the analysis of dumbbell-shaped nuclei might give a more reliable result than that of tailed nuclei since this maker is more relevant and easier to recognise than tailed nuclei (Viacheslav Kravtsov, personal communication, April 21, 2021). Moreover, although a comprehensive description of tailed nuclei morphometry is available, (Kravtsov et al 2000, Kravtsov et al 2014, Kravtsov et al 2017, it might be difficult to distinguish tailed nuclei from nuclear buds in BNC.…”