Cytogenetic investigation on underground workers in gold mine / 中华放射医学与防护杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the chromosome damage in peripheral lymphocytes of underground gold miners.Methods Conventional method and cytokinesis-block micronuclens assay were used to analyze frequency of chromosome aberrations and micronucleus in peripheral lymphocytes in 58 gold miners,respectively.Results Frequencies of chromosome-type aberrations,ehromatid-type aberrations and total aberrations were higher in the miners than those in the control group(0.72%,0.41%,1.16% vs 0.14%,0.18%,0.33,X2=44.322,9.501,50.476,P＜0.01).Both micronucleated cell rate and micronucleus rate were higher in the miners group than those in the control group(10.8‰ and 11.6‰ vs 8.7‰ and 9.0‰,X2=8.672,12.546,P＜0.01).Frequencies of chromosomal aberrations and micronucleus proportionally increased with underground working years.Compared with those miners who had worked underground 6 years or shorter,both frequencies were statistically higher among the miners who had worked underground for more than 21 years(P＜0.05).No difference was found among other groups of working years(P＞0.05).Compared with the control group,both frequencies increased in the miner group,and the differences were statistically significant(X2=2.395,P＜0.05 for chromosomal aberrations and X2=2.319,P＜0.05,respecfvely).The common types of chromosome aberrations were acentrie fragments,while chromatid break and dicenrics were subordinate.Conclusions Chromosomal damages were observed in the gold workers who exposed high radon in the underground mining.