Comparison of the effectiveness of different radiations for the induction of reproductive death, chromosome aberrations, morphological transformations and specific mutations in cultured mammalian cells

Ionizing radiations can induce a variety of changes in cultured mammalian cells, many of which are initiated by damage to the chromosomes. If the primary mechanisms of damage at the molecular level are similar, it can be expected that dose-effect relationships for the different cellular responses should exhibit common characteristics. A comparison of dose-effect relationships has been made for published data on several types of cells treated with radiations of different Linear Energy Transfer (LET) and assessed with respect to two or more endpoints. Various types of cells have different sensitivities to low LET as well as to high LET radiation and cellular effects are induced at different frequencies per unit dose. Cell reproductive death and chromosome aberrations can presumably be induced as a result of damage in any one of the chromosomes. Chromosome breaks leading to deletions may occur at many sites. The probability of breaks may not be uniform along chromosomes, but this is difficult to establish. Cell transformation is more frequently (30 to 1000 times) induced by ionizing radiations than specific gene mutations and it may therefore be inferred that many, if not all, chromosomes contain one or more sites with genes which, if damaged, deleted or transposed to another site, may cause morphological malignant transformation. (Auth./C.F.)