DNA Damage by X-ray and Low Energy Electron Beam Irradiation
Park, Yeun-Soo;Noh, Hyung-Ah;Cho, Hyuck;Dumont, Ariane;Ptasinska, Sylwia;Bass, Andrew D.;Sanche, Leon;
ABSTRACT
We observed DNA damages as a function of mean absorbed dose to identify the indirect effect of high-energy radiation such as x-ray. Monolayer films of lyophilized pGEM-3Zf(-) plasmid DNA deposited on tantalum foils were exposed to Al $K{alpha}$ X-ray (1.5 keV) for 0, 3, 7 and 10 min, respectively, in a condition of ultrahigh vacuum state. We compared DNA damages by X-ray irradiation with those by 3 eV electron irradiation. X-ray photons produced low-energy electrons (mainly below 20 eV) from the tantalum foils and DNA damage was induced chiefly by these electrons. For electron beam irradiation, DNA damage was directly caused by 3 eV electrons. Irradiated DNA was analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis and quantified by ImagaQuant program. The quantities of remained supercoiled DNA after irradiation were linearly decreased as a function of mean absorbed dose. On the other hand, the yields of nicked circular (single strand break, SSB) and interduplex crosslinked form 1 DNA were linearly increased as a function of mean absorbed dose. From this study, it was confirmed that DNA damage was also induced by low energy electrons ($0{sim}10;eV$) even below threshold energies for the ionization of DNA.
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