The Microdosimetry of Lymphocytes Irradiated by Alpha-particles

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Abstract
Although the concept of absorbed dose is commonly used in radiation biology as a parameter for comparing the toxic effect of different levels of radiation on a system, there are situations where the absorbed dose by itself is inadequate, and additional dose distribution information is required to explain the observed biological effects. A good example is the irradiation of cells by alpha-particles. The use of internal microdosimetry techniques to reinvestigate the dosimetry of 2 very similar experiments with apparently contradictory dose-response results is reported. Yields of dicentric chromosome aberrations induced in human blood lymphocytes following in vitro exposure to dissolved Am or Pu at 2 separate laboratories produced linear dose-response functions, but the slopes of the best-fit straight lines differed by a factor of 12. Microdosimetric analysis showed the results of 1 experiment to be inconsistent with a uniform distribution of activity. The difference in slope could be attributed to differences in particulate size and spatial distribution as a result of dissimilarities in procedures used for preparing the actinide solutions.

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