Stress as a modifier of the effects of technogenic and radiation exposure within low doses area

Introduction. Currently, the influence of the psychoemotional state of a person on the results of exposure to exogenous damaging factors is well studied. However, until now, this circumstance has been taken into account when assessing the stochastic effects of radiation. The work is devoted to analyzing the influence of the psychoemotional state of a person (stress) on the results of irradiation in the range of 10–1000 mGy.

Materials and methods. The results of our research and literature data on the effects of chemical and radiation factors, taking into account the level of stress, on the health of the studied cohorts are summarized.

Results. The article summarizes the results of our studies of the effects of genome instability in adults and children from large and small industrial cities of Russia and Kazakhstan, taking into account the severity of stress. It was shown that the genotoxic effects of exogenous toxic and radiation factors acting, including in vitro, were comparable with the degree of severity of stress determined using standard psychological tests. The main damaging factor in the groups of liquidators was the state of pronounced maladaptive stress. The study established that to assess the stochastic effects of training and their relationship with the dose, it is also necessary to allocate a group of adaptive and maladaptive stress based on the results of stress testing. The differences in the results can be 2–3 times. The authors propose a new approach to stress assessment, which provides an adequate forecast of possible changes in the individual sensitivity of the genome to the action of exogenous toxic and genotoxic factors, including ionizing radiation.

Conclusion. The peculiarities of the body’s perception of weak stressors of a physical nature should be taken into account when analyzing the medical consequences of exposure to ionizing radiation. To quantify the stochastic effects of the effectiveness of protective measures, it is proposed to use a coefficient that considers the impact of stress — the stress coefficient (SC), and its value, before conducting clarifying studies, should be taken equal to 2.

Contribution:

Okhrimenko S.E., Ingel F.I. — the concept and design of the study, collection and processing of the material, writing of the text, editing;

Korenkov I.P. — the concept and design of the study, writing of the text, editing; Biryukov А.Р. — the concept and design of the study, editing;

Ryzhkin S.A. — the concept and design of the study, collection and processing of the material.

All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement. The study had no sponsorship. The authors express their deep gratitude and appreciation to the Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Leonid Andreevich Il’in for his advisory assistance in the preparation of this article.

Received: July 2, 2021 / Accepted: November 25, 2021 / Published: March 10, 2022