Exposure to radiation may damage the heart, scientists say

Exposure to radiation may damage the heart, new research suggests.

Even low doses are linked with a significantly increased risk of heart damage decades after exposure, a study found.

Such radiation may reduce the heart’s ability to contract, the research adds. 

According to the World Health Organisation, radiation also causes certain cancers and affects fertility.

Researchers from the Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, examined how human arteries respond to a relatively low radiation dose of 0.5 Gy – the equivalent of repeated CT scans.

Results revealed that after exposure, cells in the inner layer of blood vessels produce reduced amounts of nitric oxide – a molecule that is essential for contraction.

Cells damaged by low-dose radiation also produce increased amounts of reactive oxygen species.

These play an important role in cell signalling but can damage DNA and proteins in excessive amounts. 

In the lab, such harmful changes did not occur until one-to-two weeks after the exposure, which is thought to correspond to several years in a living creature. 

The findings were published in the International Journal of Radiation Biology.

Study author Dr Omid Azimzadeh said: ‘Even doses around 0.5Gy have been associated with a significantly increased risk with a long lag time, up to decades. 

‘Damage to endothelial cells forming the inner layer of all vessels plays an important role in radiation-induced cardiac injury.’

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