Alpha-Particle-Induced Complex Chromosome Exchanges Transmitted through Extra-Thymic Lymphopoiesis In Vitro Show Evidence of Emerging Genomic Instability.

Human exposure to high-linear energy transfer α-particles includes environmental (e.g. radon gas and its decay progeny), medical (e.

High frequency of simple and complex chromosome aberrations detected in the Tokai-mura survivor four and five years after the 1999 criticality accident.

In September 1999 a criticality accident occurred in a uranium processing plant in Tokai-mura, Japan. During the accident, three workers (A, B and C) were exposed to high acute doses of neutrons and γ-rays: workers A and B fatally and worker C to an estimated whole body absorbed dose of 0.81 Gy neutrons and 1.

Effect of linear energy transfer (LET) on the complexity of alpha-particle-induced chromosome aberrations in human CD34+ cells.

The aim of this study was to assess the relative influence of the linear energy transfer (LET) of alpha particles on the complexity of chromosome aberrations in the absence of significant other differences in track structure. To do this, we irradiated human hemopoietic stem cells (CD34+) with alpha particles of various incident LETs (110-152 keV/microm, with mean LETs through the cell of 119-182 keV/microm) at an equi-fluence of approximately one particle/cell and assayed for chromosome aberrations by mFISH. Based on a single harvest time to collect early-division mitotic cells, complex aberrations were observed at comparable frequencies irrespective of incident LET; however, when expressed as a proportion of the total exchanges detected, their occurrence was seen to increase with increasing LET.

No increase in radiation-induced chromosome aberration complexity detected by m-FISH after culture in the presence of 5'-bromodeoxyuridine.

The thymidine analogue, 5'-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), is a known mutagen that is routinely introduced into culture media for subsequent Harlequin stain analysis and determination of cell cycle status. Previously, we examined the induction of chromosome aberrations in human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) known to be in their 1st cell division following exposure to a low dose (0.5 Gy, average one alpha-particle per cell) of high-LET alpha-particles.