Molecular Mechanism of Toxic Effects of Tritium Water in Different Biological Media

Abstract

After decades of research, the biological effects of tritium have been basically clear. Compared with many studies on tritium biology and RBE value, the research on the toxicity mechanism is relatively lacking. Previous research on the mechanism of tritiated water toxicity focused on oxidative stress, cell apoptosis, and DNA damage, but the specific molecular mechanism is lacking. With the development of molecular biology technology, it has become possible to elucidate the molecular mechanism of internal tritium radiation damage at multiple levels. In this paper, we reviewed our studies over the past ten years to clarify the mechanism of tritium toxicity from different aspects such as miRNA, DNA methylation, and gene expression changes. Some key target molecules were found and tried to be used to evaluate the tritium toxicity.