• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.165-173
• /
• 2000

Objectives : To assess the availability of the glycophorin A (GPA) assay to detect the biological effect of ionizing radiation in workers exposed to low-doses of radiation. Methods : Information on confounding factors, such as age and cigarette smoking was obtained on 144 nuclear power plant workers and 32 hospital workers, by a self-administered questionnaire. Information on physical exposure levels was obtained from the registries of radiation exposure monitoring and control at each facility. The GPA mutant assay was performed using the BR6 method with modification by using a FACScan flow cytometer. Results : As confounders, age and cigarette smoking habits showed increasing trends with GPA variants, but these were of no statistical significance. Hospital workers showed a higher frequency of the GPA variant than nuclear power plant workers in terms of the NO variant. Significant dose-response relationships were obtained from in simple and multiple linear regression models. The slope of the regression equation for nuclear power plant workers was much smaller than that of hospital workers. These findings suggest that there may be apparent dose-rate effects. Conclusion : In population exposed to chronic low-dose radiation, the GPA assay has a potential to be used as an effective biologic marker for assessing the bone marrow cumulative exposure dose.

• Genomics & Informatics
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.34-40
• /
• 2010

Radiofrequency (RF) radiation might induce the transcription of a certain set of genes as other physical stresses like ionizing radiation and UV. To observe transcriptional changes upon RF radiation, we exposed WI-38, human lung fibroblast cell to 1763 MHz of mobile phone RF radiation at 60 W/kg of specific absorption rate (SAR) for 24h with or without heat control. There were no significant changes in cell numbers and morphology after exposure to RF radiation. Using quantitative RT-PCR, we checked the expression of three heat shock protein (HSP) (HSPA1A, HSPA6 and HSP105) and seven stress-related genes (TNFRSF11B, FGF2, TGFB2, ITGA2, BRIP1, EXO1, and MCM10) in RF only and RF/HS groups of RF-exposed cells. The expressions of three heat shock proteins and seven stress-related genes were selectively changed only in RF/HS groups. Based on the expression of ten genes, we could classify thermal and non-thermal effect of RF-exposure, which genes can be used as biomarkers for RF radiation exposure.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.236-240
• /
• 2011

Mercury known as quicksilver, is the most common cause of heavy metal toxicity. Toxicity caused by excessive mercury exposure is now being recognized as a widespread environmental problem and is continuing to attract a great deal of public concerns. The mercury genotoxicity could be its effect on DNA repair mechanisms, which constitute the defense system designated to protect genome integrity. The objective of this study is to confirm that mercuric chloride inhibits the repair of gamma ray-induced DNA damage. The earthworm of Eisenia fetida was chosen for this study because it is an internationally accepted model species for toxicity testing with a cosmopolitan distribution. Experiments were done to identify the levels of DNA damage and the repair kinetics in the coelomocytes of E. fetida irradiated with 20 Gy gamma rays alone or with gamma rays after 40 mg $kg^{-1}$ $HgCl_2$ treatment by means of the single cell gel electrophoresis assay. The Olive tail moments were measured during 0~96 hours after irradiation. The repair time in the animals treated with the combination of $HgCl_2$ and ionizing radiation was nearly five times longer than that in the animals treated with ionizing radiation alone. Also, E. fetida exposed to mercury showed a statistically lower repair efficiency of gamma ray-induced DNA damage. The results suggest that the mercury could even have deleterious effects on the DNA repair system. Influence of mercury on the DNA repair mechanisms has been confirmed by this study.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.10
• /
• pp.3335-3343
• /
• 2021

The impact of gamma radiation on a commercial off the shelf microcontroller board has been investigated. Three different tests have been performed to ascertain the radiation tolerance of the device from a nuclear decommissioning deployment perspective. The first test analyses the effect of radiation on the output voltage of the on-board voltage regulator during irradiation. The second test evaluated the effect of gamma radiation on the voltage characteristics of analogue and digital inputs and outputs. The final test analyses the functionality of the microcontroller when using an external, shielded voltage regulator instead of the on-board voltage regulator. The results suggest that a series of latch-ups occurs in the microcontroller during irradiation, causing increased current drain which can damage the voltage regulator if it does not have short-circuit protection. The analogue to digital conversion functionality appears to be more sensitive to gamma radiation than digital and analogue output functionality. Using an external, shielded voltage regulator can prove beneficial when used for certain applications. The collected data suggests that detaching the voltage regulator can extend the lifespan of the platform up to approximately 350 Gy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
• /
• 2002.09a
• /
• pp.267-268
• /
• 2002

Microbeam is a new avenue of radiation research especially in radiation biology and radiation protection. Selective irradiation of an ionizing particle to a targeted cell organelle may disclose such mechanisms as signal transaction among cell organelles and cell-to-cell communication in the processes toward an endpoint observed. Bystander effect, existence of which is clearly evidenced by application of the particle microbeam to biological experiments, suggests potential underestimation in the conventional risk estimation at low particle fluence rates, such as environment of space radiations in ISS (International Space Station). To promote these studies we started the construction of our microbeam facility (named as SPICE) to our HVEE Tandem accelerator (3.4 MeV proton and 5.1 MeV $^4$He$\^$2+/). For our primary goal, "irradiation of single particle to cell organelle within a position resolution of 2 micrometer in a reasonable irradiation time", special features are considered. Usage of a triplet Q magnet for focussing the beam to submicron of size is an outstanding feature compared to facilities of other institutes. Followings are other features: precise position control of cell dish holder, design of the cell dish, data acquisition of microscopic image of a cell organelle (cell nucleus) and data processing, a reliable particle detection, soft and hard wares to integrate all these related data, to control and irradiate exactly determined number of particles to a targeted spot.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.80-89
• /
• 2022

The targeting of DNA methylation in cancer using DNA hypomethylating drugs has been well known to sensitize cancer cells to chemotherapy and immunotherapy by affecting multiple pathways. Herein, we investigated the combinational effects of DNA hypomethylating drugs and ionizing radiation (IR) in human sarcoma cell lines both in vitro and in vivo. Clonogenic assays were performed to determine the radiosensitizing properties of two DNA hypomethylating drugs on sarcoma cell lines we tested in this study with multiple doses of IR. We analyzed the effects of 5-aza-dC or SGI-110, as DNA hypomethylating drugs, in combination with IR in vitro on the proliferation, apoptosis, caspase-3/7 activity, migration/invasion, and Western blotting using apoptosis- or autophagy-related factors. To confirm the combined effect of DNA hypomethylating drugs and IR in our in vitro experiment, we generated the sarcoma cells in nude mouse xenograft models. Here, we found that the combination of DNA hypomethylating drugs and IR improved anticancer effects by inhibiting cell proliferation and by promoting synergistic cell death that is associated with both apoptosis and autophagy in vitro and in vivo. Our data demonstrated that the combination effects of DNA hypomethylating drugs with radiation exhibited greater cellular effects than the use of a single agent treatment, thus suggesting that the combination of DNA hypomethylating drugs and radiation may become a new radiotherapy to improve therapeutic efficacy for cancer treatment.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.302-308
• /
• 2019

The abscopal effect is a term that has been used to describe the phenomenon in which localized radiation therapy treatment of a tumor lesion triggers a spontaneous regression of metastatic lesion(s) at a non-irradiated distant site(s). Radiation therapy induced abscopal effects are believed to be mediated by activation and stimulation of the immune system. However, due to the brain's distinctive immune microenvironment, extracranial abscopal responses following cranial radiation therapy have rarely been reported. In this report, we describe the case of 42-year-old female patient with metastatic melanoma who experienced an abscopal response following her cranial radiation therapy for her brain metastasis. The patient initially presented with a stage III melanoma of the right upper skin of her back. Approximately 5 years after her diagnosis, the patient developed a large metastatic lesion in her upper right pectoral region of her chest wall and axilla. Since the patient's tumor was positive for BRAF and MEK, targeted therapy with dabrafenib and trametinib was initiated. However, the patient experienced central nervous system (CNS) symptoms of headache and disequilibrium and developed brain metastases prior to the start of targeted therapy. The patient received radiation therapy to a dose of 30 Gy delivered in 15 fractions to her brain lesions while the patient was on dabrafenib and trametinib therapy. The patient's CNS metastases improved significantly within weeks of her therapy. The patient's non-irradiated large extracranial chest mass and axilla mass also shrank substantially demonstrating the abscopal effect during her CNS radiation therapy. Following radiation therapy of her residual chest lesions, the patient was disease free clinically and her CNS lesions had regressed. However, when the radiation therapy ended and the patient continued her targeted therapy alone, recurrence outside of her previously treated fields was noted. The disease recurrence could be due to the possibility of developing BRAF resistance clones to the BRAF targeted therapy. The patient died eventually due to wide spread systemic disease recurrence despite targeted therapy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
• /
• 2013.05a
• /
• pp.791-794
• /
• 2013

Electronic systems may be cause of various serious failures due to an ionizing radiation effect when exposed to a prompt gamma-ray pulse. This transient electrical malfunction can, in some cases, results in a failure of the electronic system of which the circuits are a part. Transient radiation measurement and evaluation system is required to development for enhanced radiation-resistance against the initial nuclear radiation produced by the detonation of a nuclear weapon of semiconductor devices. In these studies, we performed the following work. In the first part of the work, we carried out a SPICE simulation applied to nuclear radiation condition for PN diode and we also investigated the photocurrent by a pulsed gamma-ray on a PN diode using a TCAD simulation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.28-31
• /
• 2018

In display and semi-conductor manufacturing process, there are numerous unstable factors such as particle concentration, minimal vibration, changes in magnetic field, or electrostatic that becomes an issue to be managed and controlled. In the recent, X-ray ionization is widely used that is neutralized by separating air or gas molecules in the area where the static must be resolved. The mono-type of X-ray ionizer was not capable to be used in $8^{th}$ generation panels manufacturing plant due to its insufficient ionizing coverage since the panel itself is approximately in $2m{\times}3m$. To resolve the current problem, the development of new type called, "Multi-type X-ray ionizer" has resulted in covering enough ionizing space in $8^{th}$ generation panels industry. Comparing mono and multi types with MCNPX code simulation, the multi one indicates more X-ray flux, efficiency, and ionization performance in comparison with either a mono-type or multi-type in array format. In addition, the ionizing efficiency of overlapping area with multi-type showed 30% higher effectiveness rate as to the ordinary mono-type.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.5
• /
• pp.1642-1651
• /
• 2021

In this study, isophtalic neopentyl glycol polyester (NPG-PES) based composites with different loading ratios of pure tungsten metal (W), tungsten (VI) oxide (WO₃), tungsten boron (WB) and tungsten carbide (WC) composites were prepared as alternative shielding materials for ionizing electromagnetic radiation (IEMR) shielding. Structural characterizations of the composites were done. Gamma spectrometric analysis of composites for 80-2000 keV energy range was performed and their usability as IEMR shielding was discussed. As a result, the produced composites showed a shielding performance of 60-100% of the lead (the most widely used IEMR shielding material) depending on the reinforcement material, reinforcement loading rate and experimental conditions. Thus, it was reported that produced composites could be an alternative to lead shieldings that have several disadvantages as toxic properties, difficulty of processing and inelasticity.