Relationships of radiation track structure to biological effect: a re-interpretation of the parameters of the Katz model

The Katz track-model of cell inactivation has been more successful than any other biophysical model in fitting and predicting inactivation of mammalian cells exposed to a wide variety of ionising radiations. Although the model was developed as a parameterised phenomenological description, without necessarily implying any particular mechanistic processes, the present analysis attempts to interpret it and thereby benefit further from its success to date. A literal interpretation of the parameters leads to contradictions with other experimental and theoretical information, especially since the fitted parameters imply very large (> ∼ 4 μm) subcellular sensitive sites which each require very large amounts (> ∼ 100 keV) of energy deposition in order to be inactivated. Comparisons of these fits with those for cell mutation suggest a re-interpretation in terms of (1) very much smaller sites and (2) a clearer distinction between the ion-kill and γ-kill modes of inactivation. It is suggested that this re-interpretation may be able to guide future development of the phenomenological Katz model and also parameterisation of mechanistic biophysical models. (author)