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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: Induction of sister chromatid exchanges by extremely low doses of alpha-particles.

Authors: Nagasawa, H; Little, J B

Published In Cancer Res, (1992 Nov 15)

Abstract: The induction of sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) was examined in Chinese hamster ovary cells irradiated in the G1 phase of the cell cycle with alpha-particles from a plutonium-238 source. A significant increase in the frequency of SCE occurred with doses as low as 0.31 mGy (31 millirads). Although 30% of the cells showed an increased frequency of SCE at this dose, less than 1% of cell nuclei were actually traversed by an alpha-particle. A dose of approximately 2.0 Gy was necessary to produce a similar increase in SCE by X-rays. These results indicate that genetic damage may be induced by low doses of alpha-radiation in cell nuclei not actually traversed by an alpha-particle. This phenomenon may have important implications in the estimation of risks of such exposures.

PubMed ID: 1423287 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: No MeSH terms associated with this publication

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