Fetal atomic bomb survivor dosimetry using the J45 series of pregnant female phantoms with realistic survivor exposure scenarios; Comparisons to dose estimates in the DS02 system

Paulbeck, C. J.*; Sato, Tatsuhiko; Funamoto, Sachiyo*; Lee, C.*; Griffin, K. T.*; Cullings, H. M.*; Egbert, S. D.*; Endo, Akira; Hertel, N. E.*; Bolch, W. E.*

Radiation and Environmental Biophysics, 62(3), p.317 - 329, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00411-023-01032-5

In our prior study [Radiat Res 192, 538-561 (2019)], we presented a new J45 (Japanese 1945) series of high-resolution phantoms of the adult pregnant female at 8-week, 15-week, 25-week, and 38-week post-conception. In this present study, we extend this work using realistic angular fluences from the DS02 system for up to nine different radiation categories and five shielding conditions. General findings are that the current DS02 fetal dose surrogate overestimates values of fetal organ dose seen in the J45 phantoms towards the cranial end of the fetus, especially in the later stages of pregnancy. This work supports our previous findings that the J45 pregnant female phantom series offers significate opportunities for gestational age-dependent assessment of fetal organ dose without the need to invoke the uterine wall as a fetal organ surrogate.

Japanese pediatric and adult atomic bomb survivor dosimetry; Potential improvements using the J45 phantom series and modern Monte Carlo transport

Griffin, K. T.*; Sato, Tatsuhiko; Funamoto, Sachiyo*; Chizhov, K.*; Domal, S.*; Paulbeck, C.*; Bolch, W.*; Cullings, H. M.*; Egbert, S. D.*; Endo, Akira; et al.

Radiation and Environmental Biophysics, 61(1), p.73 - 86, 2022/03

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00411-021-00946-2

To evaluate the potential dosimetry improvements that would arise from their use in a Dosimetry System (DS) at RERF, we have evaluated organ doses in the J45 series using the environmental fluence data for twenty generalized survivor scenarios pulled directly from the current DS. The energy- and angle-dependent gamma and neutron fluences were converted to a phase space source term for use in MCNP6, a modern radiation transport code. Overall, the updated phantom series would be expected to provide dose improvements to several important organs, including the active marrow, colon, and stomach wall (up to 20%, 20%, and 15% impact on total dose, respectively). The impacts on dosimetry were especially significant for neutron dose estimates (up to a two-fold difference) and within organs which were unavailable in the previous phantom series, such as the skin, esophagus, and prostate.

Organ doses of the fetus from external environmental exposures

Petoussi-Henss, N.*; Satoh, Daiki; Schlattl, H.*; Zankl, M.*; Spielman, V.*

Radiation and Environmental Biophysics, 60(1), p.93 - 113, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00411-020-00891-6

In this study, the nuclide-specific organ dose coefficients of pregnant female and its fetus for environmental external exposures have been evaluated. The radiation sources were uniformly put in the soil at the depth of 0.5 g cm or in the atmosphere. The environmental radiation fields for the soil contamination were analyzed by using the radiation transport code PHITS, and the fields for the air submersion were taken from the existing data analyzed by the YURI code. The numerical models of the pregnant female and its fetus were put in the environmental radiation fields, and the radiation transport simulations were performed using the EGS code to obtain the organ absorbed doses. From the simulation results, it was found that the radionuclide-specific uterus doses of the pregnant female agreed with the total body doses of the fetus within 6%, except for some radionuclides which emit the low-energy photons below 50 keV. Using the organ dose coefficients evaluated in the present study, the doses of the pregnant female and its fetus can be estimated easily from the data of activity concentration of the radionuclides distributed in the environment.

Organ and detriment-weighted dose rate coefficients for exposure to radionuclide-contaminated soil considering body morphometries that differ from reference conditions; Adults and children

Kofler, C.*; Domal, S.*; Satoh, Daiki; Dewji, S.*; Eckerman, K.*; Bolch, W. E.*

Radiation and Environmental Biophysics, 58(4), p.477 - 492, 2019/11

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00411-019-00812-2

In the current radiation protection system, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommends to use the effective dose for dose estimation. The effective dose is derived from the organ doses calculated using the computational human models (phantoms) defined by the ICRP to represent the reference person at each age. Questions arise, however, among the general public regarding the accuracy of organ and effective dose estimates based upon reference phantom methodologies, especially for those individuals with heights and/or weights that differ from the nearest age-matched reference person. In this paper, the detriment-weighted dose was defined for non-reference persons as the same manner to the effective dose for reference person. The doses were calculated for external exposure to radionuclides in a soil using 351-member phantom library based on the data of the U.S. population reported by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. The results for 33 nuclides were listed in the paper. Especially, for the environmental relevant radionuclides of Sr, Sr, Cs, and I, the detriment-weighted dose of 1-year-old phantom agreed with the effective dose within 5%, while the range of percent differences in these two quantities increased with increases the body size and age, e.g. +15% to -40% for adults.

Measurements of radon activity concentration in mouse tissues and organs

Ishimori, Yuu; Tanaka, Hiroshi; Sakoda, Akihiro; Kataoka, Takahiro*; Yamaoka, Kiyonori*; Mitsunobu, Fumihiro*

Radiation and Environmental Biophysics, 56(2), p.161 - 165, 2017/05

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00411-017-0682-9

In order to investigate the biokinetics of inhaled radon, radon concentrations in mouse tissues and organs were determined after mice had been exposed to about 1 MBq/m of radon in air. Radon concentrations in mouse blood and in other tissues and organs were measured with a liquid scintillation counter and with a well-type HP Ge detector, respectively. Radon concentration in mouse blood was 0.4100.016 Bq/g when saturated with 1 MBq/m of radon concentration in air. In addition, average partition coefficients obtained were 0.740.19 for liver, 0.460.13 for muscle, 9.090.49 for adipose tissue, and 0.220.04 for other organs. With these results, a value of 0.414 for the blood-to-air partition coefficient was calculated by means of our physiologically based pharmacokinetic model. The time variation of radon concentration in mouse blood during exposure to radon was also calculated. All results are compared in detail with those found in the literature.

Structures of the troponin core domain containing the cardiomyopathy-causing mutants studied by small-angle X-ray scattering

Matsuo, Tatsuhito; Takeda, Soichi*; Oda, Toshiro*; Fujiwara, Satoru

Biophysics and Physicobiology (Internet), 12, p.145 - 158, 2015/12

http://doi.org/10.2142/biophysico.12.0_145

Difference in hydration structures between F-actin and myosin subfragment-1 detected by small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering

Matsuo, Tatsuhito; Arata, Toshiaki*; Oda, Toshiro*; Fujiwara, Satoru

Biophysics, 9, p.99 - 106, 2013/07

https://doi.org/10.2142/biophysics.9.99

Lung dosimetry of inhaled radon progeny in mice

Sakoda, Akihiro; Ishimori, Yuu; Fukao, Kosuke*; Yamaoka, Kiyonori*; Kataoka, Takahiro*; Mitsunobu, Fumihiro*

Radiation and Environmental Biophysics, 51(4), p.425 - 442, 2012/11

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00411-012-0431-z

Biological response of exposure to radon progeny has long been investigated, but there are few studies in which absorbed doses in lungs were estimated if laboratory animals were used. The present study is the first attempt to calculate the doses of inhaled radon progeny for mice. For reference, the doses for rats and humans were also computed with the corresponding models. Lung deposition of particles, their clearance, and energy deposition of alpha particles to sensitive tissues were systematically simulated. Absorbed doses to trachea and bronchi (BB), bronchioles and terminal bronchioles (bb), alveolar-interstitial (AI) regions, and whole lung were first provided as a function of monodisperse radon-progeny particles with an equilibrium equivalent radon concentration of 1 Bq m-3 (equilibrium factor: 0.4 and unattached fraction: 0.01). Based on the results, absorbed doses were then calculated for (1) a reference mine condition and (2) a condition previously used for animal experiments. It was found that the whole lung doses for mice, rats and humans were 34.8, 20.7 and 10.7 nGy (Bq m) h for the mine condition, respectively, while they were 16.9, 9.9 and 6.5 nGy (Bq m) h for the animal experimental condition. In both cases, the values of mice are about 2 times higher than those of rats, and about 3 times higher than those of humans. Comparison of our data on rats and humans with those published in the literature shows an acceptable agreement, suggesting the validity of the present modeling for mice. In the future, a more sophisticated dosimetric study of inhaled radon progeny in mice would be desirable to demonstrate how anatomical, physiological and environmental parameters can influence absorbed doses.

Reduction of salt-requirement of halophilic nucleoside diphosphate kinase by engineering S-S bond

Ishibashi, Matsujiro*; Uchino, Manami*; Arai, Shigeki; Kuroki, Ryota; Arakawa, Tsutomu*; Tokunaga, Masao*

Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 525(1), p.47 - 52, 2012/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.abb.2012.05.021

Nucleoside diphosphate kinase (HsNDK) from Halobacterium salinarum requires salt at high concentrations for folding. A D148C mutant, in which Asp148 was replaced with Cys, was designed to enhance stability and folding in low salt solution by S-S bond. It showed increased thermal stability by about 10C in 0.2 M NaCl over the wild type HsNDK. It refolded from heat-denaturation even in 0.1 M NaCl, while the wild type required 2 M NaCl to achieve the same level of activity recovery. This enhanced refolding is due to the three S-S bonds between two basic dimeric units in the hexameric HsNDK structure. Moreover, salt concentration dependency of heat-denaturation process and refolding process of the wild type and D148C mutant HsNDKs were investigated by the circular dichroism and native-PAGE analysis.

Dose estimation for astronauts using dose conversion coefficients calculated with the PHITS code and the ICRP/ICRU adult reference computational phantoms

Sato, Tatsuhiko; Endo, Akira; Sihver, L.*; Niita, Koji*

Radiation and Environmental Biophysics, 50(1), p.115 - 123, 2011/03

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00411-010-0330-0

Absorbed-dose and dose-equivalent rates for astronauts were estimated by multiplying fluence-to-dose conversion coefficients and cosmic-ray fluxes around spacecrafts. The accuracies of the obtained absorbed-dose and dose-equivalent rates were clearly verified by various experimental data measured both inside and outside spacecrafts. The calculation quantitatively shows that the effective doses for astronauts are significantly greater than their corresponding effective dose equivalents because of the numerical incompatibility between the radiation quality factors and the radiation weighting factors.