Historical Background ABSTRACT Strong sources of radiation became available in the 1950s. Since then, intense ionizing beams have been employed against cancer to destroy or shrink tumors. Today, nearly all radiation treatments for cancer apply high doses to local regions of the body. It is generally believed that radiation in any amount will only damage cells and that the mutated cells could be...

The manipulation of oxygen to trigger the stimulatory response known as hormesis is an area interest in insects that was born almost fifty years ago. Varying low-oxygen treatments have been investigated many times since with differing responses found; some hormetic/some harmful. In this review, we summarize recent advancements a focus on severe hypoxia and anoxia. These two fall below critical ...

Studying of the effects of low doses of γ-irradiation is a crucial issue in different areas of interest, from environmental safety and industrial monitoring to aerospace and medicine. The goal of this work is to identify changes of lifespan and expression stress-sensitive genes in Drosophila melanogaster, exposed to low doses of γ-irradiation (5-40 cGy) on the imaginal stage of development. Alt...

Documented biphasic dose-responses date some 150 years back; however, massive evaluations of the occurrence pollutant-induced hormesis, its quantitative characteristics, and underlying mechanisms have been performed only in recent years. One reasons why hormesis is not included ecological risk assessment may be poorly explored relevance to levels biological organization beyond individual. Here,...

Much confusion surrounds the concept of hormesis and what its biological meaning represents. This paper provides a definition of hormesis that addresses its historical foundations, quantitative features, and underlying evolutionary and toxicologically based mechanistic strategies. Hormesis should be considered an adaptive response characterized by biphasic dose responses of generally similar qu...

In contrast to the detrimental action of severe stress conditions, the beneficial effects of mild stress, known as hormesis, is increasingly discussed and studied. A variety of applications for hormesis in risk assessment processes, anti-ageing strategies and clinical therapies have been proposed. The molecular mechanisms underlying the phenomenon of hormesis, however, are not yet fully underst...