Glycophorin A biodosimetry in Chernobyl cleanup workers from the Baltic countries

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Abstract
We identified three populations of Chernobyl workers who were male residents of Estonia (4836), Latvia (5709), and Lithuania (5446) and who were sent to the Chernobyl area primarily in 1986 or 1987. Estimates of their physical doses are based on dosimetry records obtained from Soviet military lists and individual Chernobyl passports. We derived biodosimetry data for 453 workers from Estonia (recorded physical doses: range 0.02-28.3 cGy, median 9.5 cGy, arithmetic mean (SD) 10.7 (6.4) cGy), 281 from Latvia (range 0-27.8 cGy, median 9.4 cGy, mean (SD) 9.6 (7.7) cGy), and 48 from Lithuania (range 2.5-36.0 cGy, median 16.2 cGy, mean (SD) 16.1 (7.7) cGy). Given the uncertainties of measurement and reporting surrounding these estimates, we wished to determine whether the radiation doses received by these workers resulted in a detectable biological response in an independent biodosimetric assay. We used the glycophorin A in vivo somatic cell mutation assay. This uses immunolabelling and flow cytometry to enumerate variant erythrocytes in peripheral blood expressing phenotypic loss of the glycophorin A allele resulting from mutations in the glycophorin A gene in bone marrow progenitor cells.2 This assay has shown an association between exposure to ionising radiation and long term elevation of variants with loss of the glycophorin A allele in several populations, including those at Hiroshima, Japan,3 Chernobyl,4 and Goiania, Brazil.5