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Relative biological effect of high-Z, high-LET charged particles for spermatogonial killing

Journal Article · · Radiat. Res.; (United States)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2307/3575758· OSTI ID:6027038
The testis weight loss at 28 days after irradiation was used to assess the relative effectiveness of high-energy heavy ions for cell killing of mouse spermatogonia. The testis weights are corrected for the radiation-insensitive fraction. With this model the data were found to fit an exponential survival curve with no shoulder. For all ions the extrapolation number is 1.0. For /sup 60/Co radiation the extrapolation number is 1.0 and the D/sub 0/ is 107 rad. All ions have killing effectiveness higher than /sup 60/Co radiation except nonstopping helium ions. The radiation modalities used were 228 MeV/amu helium ions and 400 to 670 MeV/amu carbon, neon, and argon ions. The RBE for spermatogonial killing was a maximum of 3.0 for plateau argon ions. Both neon and argon ions were shown to have reduced effectiveness if the LET exceeded 100 keV/..mu..m. One of the most significant observations made in these studies is that LET alone does not predict the effectiveness of the various ions. Large differences in effectiveness are seen as a function of atomic number of the particle, even though LET is held approximately constant.
Research Organization:
Univ. of California, Berkeley
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
OSTI ID:
6027038
Journal Information:
Radiat. Res.; (United States), Journal Name: Radiat. Res.; (United States) Vol. 88:1; ISSN RAREA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English