Dose-response relations for dicentric yields in G 0 lymphocytes on man and crab-eating monkey following acute and chronic γ-irradiations

Abstract

A comparison has been made of dicentric yields in G 0 lymphocytes between man and crab-eating monkey, Macaca fascicularis, after acute and chronic γ-irradiations. With acute irradiation (49.6 rad/min) there was no significant difference between them, but for the chronic irradiation (17.1 rad/h) a significant difference was observed between the species. When the dose-response relations were fitted to the linear-quadratic model ( Y = αD + βD 2), the species-difference observed for chronic irradiation was almost entirely due to change in the value of β. In addition, after chronic irradiation the β-value for monkey was almost negligible, but that for man was significant. Post-irradiation incubation experiment showed that cells with dicentrics were partly eliminated during the course of chronic irradiation, because there were appreciable reductions of dicentric yields (ca. 25% for both man and monkey at 400 rad) together with mitotic indices (ca. 30% and 60% for man and monkey, respectively, at 400 rad). Accordingly, it would be reasonable to postulate that G 0 repair for dicentrics other than selection mechanism must play a major role in the effects of low dose rate. It can be further suggested that G 0-repair capacity for chromosal damages leading to dicentrics may be different among different primate species.