[Individual immunological parameters in clean-up team members and patients with sequelae of acute radiation sickness 5 years after the effects of the Chernobyl accident].

Abstract

A study was made of deviations, beyond 1 sigma and 1.5 sigma of a mean value (M) of a donor group, in individual immunological parameters (for instance, the number of CD5+, CD2+, CD4+, CD8+, CD25+ and B-cells; alpha 1-thymosin concentration; and autoantibody titers to antigens of epithelial reticulum cell cytoplasm) in patients suffered acute radiation sickness (ARS) and liquidators of Chernobyl NPP accident. The radiation damage to the immune system was reliably detected in the affected subjects examined: they exhibited a decrease in the alpha 1-thymosin level below M = -1.5 sigma and in absolute B cellularity below M = -1 sigma; and increase in the number of CD25+ cells and in the level of serum autoantibodies to antigens of thymus epithelial reticulum cell cytoplasm. When several parameters selected were examined simultaneously the frequency of recording the deviations in merely one of them markedly increased.