Relative biological effectiveness for cell-killing effect on various human cell lines irradiated with heavy-ion medical accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC) carbon-ion beams.

Abstract

To clarify the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) values of various human cell lines for carbon-ion beams with 2 different linear energy transfer (LET) beams and to investigate the relationship between the cell-killing effect and the biophysical characters, such as the chromosome number and the area of the cell nucleus, using qualitatively different kinds of radiations. Sixteen different human cell lines were irradiated with carbon-ion beams, having 2 different LET values (LET(infinity) = 13.3 and approximately 77 keV/microm), accelerated by the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC) at National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Japan. Cell-killing effect was detected as reproductive cell death using a colony-formation assay. The number of chromosomes was observed in a metaphase spread using the conventional method. The area of the cell nucleus was calculated as an ellipse on photographs using a micrometer. The RBE values calculated by the D(10), which is determined as the dose (Gy) required to reduce the surviving fraction to 10%, relative to X-rays, range from 1.06 to 1.33 for 13-keV/microm-beam and from 2.00 to 3. 01 for approximate 77-keV/microm-beam irradiation on each cell line. There was a good correlation in the D(10) values of each cell line between X-rays and carbon-ion beams. However, the D(10) values did not clearly depend on either the chromosome number or the area of the cell nuclei. The RBE values for HIMAC carbon-ion beams are consistent with previous reports using carbon-ion beams with the similar LET values, and the cellular radiosensitivity of different cell lines well correlate among different types of radiation.