Relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of alpha radiation in cultured porcine aortic endothelial cells

Abstract

The alpha RBE for porcine cells varied from 1.6-21, depending on the endpoint: 21.2+/-4.5 for cell viability, 12.9+/-2.7 for decrease in live cell number, 5.3+/-0.4 for LDH release to the medium but only 1.6 +/-0.1 for clonogenic survival. The low RBE of 1.6 was due to x-ray hypersensitivity of endothelial cells at low doses.