Dose-rate effects on lymphocyte survival.

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Abstract
Lymphocytes isolated from bovine blood were irradiated at doses of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 Gy [gray] with dose-rates of 0.361, 0.150, 0.062 and 0.006 Gy/min. The amount of trypan blue-negative cells were counted directly after radiation and 8 h after the onset of the radiation, and compared with control cells. A considerable decrease of cells was found, especially at the lowest dose-rate. At this low dose-rate, radiation-induced cell loss already occurred during the irradiation period. The observed inverse dose-rate effects on lymphocyte survival may be caused by radiation-induced damage to the plasma membrane of the cell. This phenomenon is especially pronounced at the lower range of dose-rates and is interpreted as a result of slowly progressing chain reactions occurring in the membranes, initiated by ionizing radiation.