Intra- and Inter-individual Variation of Background and Radiation-induced Micronucleus Frequencies in Human Lymphocytes

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Abstract
Serial blood samples were taken from four healthy individuals (three males, one female, aged between 26 and 51 years) in 3-monthly intervals during 1 year. Leucocyte suspensions were prepared and exposed to 3 Gy of 137Cs γ-rays or left unirradiated as controls. In a cytokinesis-blocked (CB) micronucleus (MN) assay significant inter- and intra-donor variations of background and radiation-induced MN incidences became apparent. The two sources of variation lead to an extra variance σ2I, in addition to the sample variance σ2e of MN incidences. The contributions of the different components to the total variance were estimated by means of a variance component model. The deviation σI for the mean background MN level of 1·53 × 10−2 MN/CB cell was +- 0·67 × 10−2 and for the mean radiation-induced MN level of 0·53 MN/CB cell it was ± 0·10. The contribution of the intra-individual variance to σ2I was about 50% for background MN levels and 75% for radiation-induced MN frequencies. With respect to the application of the CB-MN assay as a biological dosimetry system, the consequences of the present findings for calibration purposes and low-dose estimation are discussed. The calculation of the variance components is explained in an appendix, which serves also as an example for the adaptation of analysis of variance techniques to the evaluation of data derived from scoring of MN, as well as from scoring of metaphase chromosomal aberrations.

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