Radiation Effects on Grape Snails

In the conducted studies, young and old grape snails with shells collected from different areas of Absheron (Azerbaijan) were used as research objects. It should be noted that the age of snails is determined by the size of their shell parts. The shell color of grape snails is usually yellowish brown. Usually, they have wide stripes of dark brown color on their shells, but there are snails without them at all.
Snails are usually collected from nature in spring, summer, and early autumn. This is due to the hibernation of snails in cold seasons (at temperatures below 7 °C). Although the grape snail has a large shell and is slow, it can be a good digger. As soon as autumn comes, the snail digs a hole in the ground with its foot and then hibernates. If the ground cannot be dug due to the high density of the earth, the snail rolls over onto its back, scoops up more fallen leaves, and hibernates in this way. How long grape snails live is greatly influenced by their living conditions. In nature, this period is up to 8 years.
The grape snails that are the objects of research were collected from nature in spring and summer. After the snails were placed in special containers with 20 individuals in each, they were irradiated with different doses of ionizing gamma radiation (young snails: 200 Gy, 400 Gy, and 600 Gy; old snails: 50 Gy, 250 Gy, 450 Gy, 600 Gy, and 800 Gy) in a “RUHUND—20000” device with a CO 60 source (Figure 8). For 60 days after irradiation, the life activities and feeding of snails were monitored, and their death rates were determined. It should be noted that during this period, the food ration of the snails was completely the same. It was revealed that the life activities and nutrition of snails weaken with a high dose of gamma radiation. At the same time, the increase in the radiation dose led to an increase in their mortality rate. Thus, it was determined that two individuals irradiated with a dose of 200 Gy died, three individuals irradiated with a dose of 400 Gy died, and five individuals irradiated with a dose of 800 Gy died. In general, it was found that snails are resistant to the effects of radiation factors.
After 60 days, the shells and body parts of the snails were separated and dried under natural conditions at room temperature (22–25 °C) (Figure 9) for 10–14 days. Spectra of the dried samples were recorded at room temperature on an Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (EMX-BRUKER (Rheinstetten, Germany)).
In addition, the mucin secreted by grape snails with shells was studied by the infrared (IR) spectroscopy method (Figure 7). The quality of the extracted mucin depends on many factors: temperature, season, and diet of the snail. The study of snail mucin is of great interest. The snails release mucin during times of stress or injury. As a complicated biological complex, mucin increases the regeneration properties of the epidermis, enriches the cells of the deep layers of the skin with water, fights inflammation, and acts as a highly effective natural antioxidant. Mucin is also used for cosmetic products.
The radionuclide composition of grape snails’ bodies and shell parts and their specific activities were determined using CANBERRA gamma spectroscopy. This gamma spectroscopy is designed to measure the energies of X-ray or gamma radiation quanta emitted by radionuclides, as well as the activity (specific, volume) of gamma-emitting radionuclides in samples and objects. The results we obtained are shown in Table 1. For this purpose, when preparing the samples, the shell and body parts of the grape snails were separated from each other, dried at room temperature, and crushed by grinding. Then, the dried samples were placed in special Marinelli containers, and after some time (7–10 days), their radiospectrometric analysis was performed.