Chromosome Aberrations in Ataxia Telangectasia Cells Exposed to Heavy Ions

Understanding of biological effects of heavy ions is important to assess healt h risk in space. One of the most important issues may be to take into account individual susceptibility. Ataxia telangiectasia (A-T) cells are known to exhibit abnormal responses to radiations but the mechanism of hyper radiosensitivity of A-T still remains unknown. We report chromosome aberrations in normal human fibroblasts and AT fibroblasts exposed to low- and high-LET radiations. A chemical-induced premature chromosome condensation (PCC) technique combined with chromosomepainting technique was applied to score chromosome aberrations in G2/M-phase cells. Following gamma irradiation, GM02052 cells were approximately 5 times more sensitive to g-rays than AG1522 cells. GM02052 cells had a much higher frequency of deletions and misrejoining than AG1522 cells. When the frequency of complex type aberrations was compared, GM02052 cells showed more than 10 times higher frequency than AG1522 cells. The results will be compared with those obtained from high-LET irradiations.34th COSPAR Scientific Assembl