Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Co-occurrence of acrocentric chromosome associations with dicentric chromosomes in irradiated human lymphocytes

  • Short Communication
  • Published:
Strahlentherapie und Onkologie Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The occurrence of acrocentric chromosome association (ACA) after radiation exposure is an interesting cytogenetic endpoint, known to show a dose-dependent increase in irradiated lymphocytes suggesting its potential use in radiation biodosimetry. Here, an attempt was made to study the complexity and correlation of the occurrence of ACA with dicentric chromosomes (DC) in lymphocytes exposed to gamma radiation.

Methods

Ninety metaphases each with DC and without DC were chosen randomly from lymphocytes irradiated with different doses (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Gy) of gamma radiation. ACA along with chromosomal types of aberrations were scored and analyzed for complexity and co-occurrence, retrospectively.

Results

The number of associations between 2 and ≥ 3 acrocentric chromosomes showed an increase with each irradiation dose. Concomitantly, the total number of chromosomal type of aberrations showed an increase in number at each radiation dose studied. The number of DC showed an increase, however, metaphases containing 1DC decreased while ≥ 2DC increased as the radiation dose increased. The number of tricentric chromosomes increased at doses higher than 2 Gy. Importantly, the association of DC with an acrocentric chromosome was noticed at doses 2 Gy and above. A significant (p < 0.05) increase was noticed in ACA frequency in 1DC and ≥ 2DC metaphases at 1 and 2 Gy, in 1DC at 3 Gy, and in ≥ 2DC 4 and 5 Gy compared to the frequency in no DC metaphases. When average ACA frequency was plotted against DC frequency, a significant (p = 0.0009) correlation was observed, producing regression equation y = 0.9025x + 0.1283; R2 = 0.9522.

Conclusion

The present analysis showed increasing ACA complexity with increasing radiation dose. Furthermore, a higher frequency of ACA in cells with 1DC or ≥ 2DC compared to the ACA in cells without DC from the same sample of irradiated lymphocytes demonstrated the co-occurrence of ACA and DC in the same cells.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

References

  1. Jacobs PA, Mayer M, Morton NE (1976) Acrocentric chromosome associations in man. Am J Hum Genet 28(6):567–576

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Ferguson-Smith MA, Handmaker SD (1961) Observations on the satellited human chromosomes. Lancet 1(7178):638–640

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Zang KD, Back E (1968) Quantitative studies on the arrangement of human metaphase chromosomes. I. Individual features in the association pattern of the acrocentric chromosomes of normal males and females. Cytogenetics 7(6):455–470

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Stenstrand K (1978) Low dose X‑radiation and acrocentric chromosome satellite associations in human lymphocytes. Hereditas 88(1):131–133

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Zedginidze AG, Gvimradze Kh A, Antelava MO, Tsigroshvili ZP, Zakariadze NG (2011) The significance of acrocentric chromosomes association index for assessment of low doses radiation impact on man. Ehkol Vestnik 1(15):57–65

    Google Scholar 

  6. Fenech M (2010) The lymphocyte cytokinesis-block micronucleus cytome assay and its application in radiation biodosimetry. Health Phys 98(2):234–243

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Cornforth MN, Greulich-Bode KM, Loucas BD, Arsuaga J, Vázquez M, Sachs RK, Brückner M, Molls M, Hahnfeldt P, Hlatky L, Brenner DJ (2002) Chromosomes are predominantly located randomly with respect to each other in interphase human cells. J Cell Biol 159(2):237–244

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Potapova TA, Unruh JR, Yu Z, Rancati G, Li H, Stampfer MR, Gerton JL (2019) Superresolution microscopy reveals linkages between ribosomal DNA on heterologous chromosomes. J Cell Biol 218(8):2492–2513

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Samarth RM, Gandhi P, Chaudhury NK (2023) Linear dose response of acrocentric chromosome associations to gamma irradiation in human lymphocytes. Strahlenther Onkol 199(2):182–191

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Ainsbury EA, Lloyd DC (2010) Dose estimation software for radiation biodosimetry. Health Phys 98(2):290–295

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Ryan TL, Escalona MB, Smith TL, Albanese J, Iddins CJ, Balajee AS (2019) Optimization and validation of automated dicentric chromosome analysis for radiological/nuclear triage applications. Mutat Res 847:503087

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Royba E, Repin M, Balajee AS, Shuryak I, Pampou S, Karan C, Wang YF, Lemus OD, Obaid R, Deoli N, Wuu CS, Brenner DJ, Garty G (2023) Validation of a high-throughput dicentric chromosome assay using complex radiation exposures. Radiat Res 199(1):1–16

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Shen X, Ma T, Li C, Wen Z, Zheng J, Zhou Z (2023) High-precision automatic identification method for dicentric chromosome images using two-stage convolutional neural network. Sci Rep 13(1):2124

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Gavrilã L, Marinescu M, Ghetea L, Stefan M, Petrescu A, Talmaci-Basalic R, Gavrila LB, Gavrilã VR (1997) Cytogenetical studies of miners from uranium mines in the western carpathians. Cytologia 62(4):369–376

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Yadav JS, Seth N (2000) Effect of diagnostic X‑rays on somatic chromosomes of occupationally exposed workers. Indian J Exp Biol 38(1):46–50

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Caradonna F (2015) Nucleoplasmic bridges and acrocentric chromosome associations as early markers of exposure to low levels of ionising radiation in occupationally exposed hospital workers. Mutagenesis 30(2):269–275

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Luxton JJ, McKenna MJ, Taylor LE, George KA, Zwart SR, Crucian BE, Drel VR, Garrett-Bakelman FE, Mackay MJ, Butler D, Foox J, Grigorev K, Bezdan D, Meydan C, Smith SM, Sharma K, Mason CE, Bailey SM (2020) Temporal telomere and DNA damage responses in the space radiation environment. Cell Rep 33(10):108435

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Arsuaga J, Greulich-Bode KM, Vazquez M, Bruckner M, Hahnfeldt P, Brenner DJ, Sachs R, Hlatky L (2004) Chromosome spatial clustering inferred from radiogenic aberrations. Int J Radiat Biol 80(7):507–515

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. van Sluis M, van Vuuren C, Mangan H, McStay B (2020) NORs on human acrocentric chromosome p‑arms are active by default and can associate with nucleoli independently of rDNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 117(19):10368–10377

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The financial support from INMAS/DRDO Delhi in terms of the CARS project (ST-CARS/18-19/INM/01) is thankfully acknowledged.

Funding

This work was supported by a grant received from INMAS/DRDO Delhi ST-CARS/18-19/INM/01.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Research, Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research Centre (BMHRC), under ICMR, Government of India, Raisen Bypass Road, 462038, Bhopal, India

    Ravindra M. Samarth & Puneet Gandhi

  2. Division of CBRN, Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences (INMAS), DRDO, 110054, Delhi, India

    Nabo Kumar Chaudhury

Authors
  1. Ravindra M. Samarth
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Puneet Gandhi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nabo Kumar Chaudhury
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

RMS—Designed the study, analyzed data & wrote MS; PG—Wrote & Reviewed MS; NKC—Designed the study & Reviewed MS.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ravindra M. Samarth.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

R.M. Samarth, P. Gandhi and N.K. Chaudhury declare that they have no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Samarth, R.M., Gandhi, P. & Chaudhury, N.K. Co-occurrence of acrocentric chromosome associations with dicentric chromosomes in irradiated human lymphocytes. Strahlenther Onkol 199, 862–868 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00066-023-02111-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00066-023-02111-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation