Development, beam characterization and chromosomal effectiveness of X-rays of RBC characteristic X-ray generator

A characteristic hot-filament type X-ray generator was constructed for irradiation of cultured cells. The source provides copper K, iron K, chromium K, molybdenum L, aluminium K and carbon K shell characteristic X-rays. When cultured mouse m5S cells were irradiated and frequencies of dicentrics were fitted to a linear-quadratic model, Y = alphaD + betaD2, the chromosomal effectiveness was not a simple function of photon energy. The alpha-terms increased with the decrease of the photon energy and then decreased with further decrease of the energy with an inflection point at around 10 keV. The beta-terms stayed constant for the photon energy down to 10 keV and then increased with further decrease of energy. Below 10 keV, the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) at low doses was proportional to the photon energy, which contrasted to that for high energy X- or gamma-rays where the RBE was inversely related with the photon energy. The reversion of the energy dependency occurred at around 1-2 Gy, where the RBE of soft X-rays was insensitive to X-ray energy. The reversion of energy-RBE relation at a moderate dose may shed light on the controversy on energy dependency of RBE of ultrasoft X-rays in cell survival experiments.