Exposition of humans to low doses and low dose rate irradiation: an urgent need for new markers and new models

Abstract

In human radiation protection, the shape of the dose effects curve for low doses irradiation (LDI) is assumed to be linear, extrapolated from the clinical consequences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear explosions. This extrapolation probably overestimates the risk below 200 mSv. In many circumstances, the living species and cells can develop some mechanisms of adaptation. Classical epidemiological studies will not be able to answer the question and there is a need to assess more sensitive biological markers of the effects of LDI. The researches should be focused on DNA effects (strand breaks), radioinduced expression of new genes and proteins involved in the response to oxidative stress and DNA repair mechanisms. New experimental biomolecular techniques should be developed in parallel with more conventional ones. Such studies would permit to assess new biological markers of radiosensitivity, which could be of great interest in radiation protection and radio-oncology.