Impact of repeated dose of stable iodine in an in utero rat model using a metabolomic approach

Abstract

The Fukushima nuclear power plant blast resulted in the release of 131Iodine for several weeks. This unexpected issue challenged the iodin doctrine [1], in which the counter-measure is to provide a unique iodine tablet to saturate thyroid during the radioactive contamination not expected to last more than several hours. A new doctrine must be implemented to take into account such case of extended exposure based on repeated iodine administration with adapted dosage. But repeated administration of iodine can block the thyroid [2] and few scientific evidences regarding repeated iodine administration (and its potential undesirable effect) are at our disposal [3]. Moreover, unborn and young children are at high risk during a nuclear incident: it is currently recognized that one of the risks of exposure to radioactive iodine is the development of thyroid cancer, especially when exposure occurred during childhood [4]. Their protection is a main priority. Our goal was to evaluate the potential undesirable effects of such repeated iodine administration in the offspring using an untargeted metabolomic approach on a rat reproductive model.