A new model of biodosimetry to integrate low and high doses

PLoS One. 2014 Dec 2;9(12):e114137. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114137. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Biological dosimetry, that is the estimation of the dose of an exposure to ionizing radiation by a biological parameter, is a very important tool in cases of radiation accidents. The score of dicentric chromosomes, considered to be the most accurate method for biological dosimetry, for low LET radiation and up to 5 Gy, fits very well to a linear-quadratic model of dose-effect curve assuming the Poisson distribution. The accuracy of this estimation raises difficulties for doses over 5 Gy, the highest dose of the majority of dose-effect curves used in biological dosimetry. At doses over 5 Gy most cells show difficulties in reaching mitosis and cannot be used to score dicentric chromosomes. In the present study with the treatment of lymphocyte cultures with caffeine and the standardization of the culture time, metaphases for doses up to 25 Gy have been analyzed. Here we present a new model for biological dosimetry, which includes a Gompertz-type function as the dose response, and also takes into account the underdispersion of aberration-among-cell distribution. The new model allows the estimation of doses of exposures to ionizing radiation of up to 25 Gy. Moreover, the model is more effective in estimating whole and partial body exposures than the classical method based on linear and linear-quadratic functions, suggesting their effectiveness and great potential to be used after high dose exposures of radiation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Caffeine / administration & dosage
  • Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Radiation Dosage*
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Caffeine

Grants and funding

This work received financial support from the Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear. The sponsor had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis or interpretation. M.R.C., L.B. and J.F.B. belong to a consolidated research group of the Generalitat de Catalunya (2014 SGR 354) and to RTICC RD06/0020/1020. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.