Theoretical and observational analysis of individual ionizing particle effects in biological tissue

This investigation was conducted in an effort to gain a deeper understanding of the microstructural damage to living tissue caused by heavy ion radiation. Preliminary tests on rat corneal tissue, rat cerebellar tissue grown in culture, and rat retinal tissue indicated that of these three tissues the best assay for heavy ion damage might be the rat cornea. The anterior surface of the cornea consists of squamous epithelial cells whose plasma membrane morphology is readily characterized under high resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Thus any structural changed leading to alterations in corneal morphology should be relatively easy to detect if they are within the resolution capability of the SEM. Prior to this work, biological lesions caused by ionizing radiation were almost never observed shortly after a dose was delivered even if the dose was lethal