The effects of alternating magnetic fields on the survival of cultured mammalian cells irradiated with californium-252 and cobalt-60

An alternating magnetic field (0.05T peak flux density at 1.92 kHz) was applied to cultured Chinese hamster cells in suspension during exposure to californium-252 (1.88 Gy/h) or cobalt-60 (54 Gy/h). There was no increase in cell killing observed (assayed by colony formation) but there was slight evidence for a radioprotective effect. It is hypothesized that increasing the event size distribution by spiraling recoil protons around magnetic field lines adds no lethality to the short, dense ionization tracks produced by Cf-252 exposure. A comparison of the control curves for the conditions stated showed an RBE of 2.6 for Cf-252 (compared to Co-60) at the 10% survival level. (Auth.)