Track Structure Study for Energy Dependency of Electrons and X-rays on DNA Double-Strand Break Induction

Radiation weighting factor w(R) for photons and electrons has been defined as unity independently of the energy of the particles. However, the biological effects depend on the incident energies according to in vitro experimental data. In this study, we have quantified the energy concentration along electron tracks in terms of dose-mean lineal energy (y(D)) on chromosome (micro-meter) and DNA (nano-meter) order scales by Monte Carlo simulations, and evaluated the impact of photon energies on DNA double-strand break (DNA-DSB) induction from an experimental study of irradiated cells. Our simulation result shows that the y(D) values for diagnostic X-rays (60–250 kVp) are higher than that for therapeutic X-rays (linac 6 MV), which agrees well with the tissue equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) measurements. The relation between the y(D) values and the numbers of γ-H2AX foci for various photon energy spectra suggests that low energy X-rays induce DNA-DSB more efficiently than higher energy X-rays even at the same absorbed dose (e.g., 1.0 Gy). The relative biological effectiveness based on DNA-DSBs number (RBE(DSB)) is proportionally enhanced as the y(D) value increases, demonstrating that the biological impact of the photon irradiation depends on energy concentration along radiation tracks of electrons produced in the bio-tissues. Ultimately, our study implies that the value of w(R) for photons varies depending on their energies.