Comparison of Biological Measurement and Physical Estimates of Space Radiation in the International Space Station

Authors

Kayo Yoshida, Osaka City University
Megumi Hada, Radiation Institute for Science and Engineering
Akane Kizu, Osaka City University
Kohei Kitada, Osaka City University
Kiyomi Eguchi-Kasai, QST National Institute of Radiation Sciences
Toshiaki Kokubo, QST National Institute of Radiation Sciences
Takeshi Teramura, Kindai University
Sachiko Yano, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Hiromi Hashizum Suzuki, Japan Space Forum
Hitomi Watanabe, Kyoto University
Gen Kondoh, Kyoto University
Aiko Nagamatsu, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Premkumar Saganti, Radiation Institute for Science and Engineering
Francis A. Cucinotta, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Takashi Morita, Osaka City UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-8-2022

Publication Title

Heliyon

Volume

8

Issue

8

First page number:

1

Last page number:

7

Abstract

Nowadays, ordinary people can travel in space, and the possibility of extended durations in an environment such as moon of the Earth and Mars with higher space radiation exposures compared to past missions, is increasing. Until now, the physical doses of space radiation have been measured, but measurement of direct biological effects has been hampered by its low dose and low dose-rate effect. To assess the biological effects of space radiation, we launched and kept frozen mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells in minus eighty degree Celsius freezer in ISS (MELFI) on the International Space Station (ISS) for a maximum of 1,584 days. The passive dosimeter for life science experiments in space (PADLES) was attached on the surface of the sample case of the ES cells. The physical dosimeter measured the absorbed dose in water. After return, the frozen cells were thawed and cultured and their chromosome aberrations were analyzed. Comparative experiments with proton and iron ion irradiation were performed at particle accelerators on Earth. The wild-type ES cells showed no differences in chromosomal aberrations between the ground control and ISS exposures. However, we detected an increase of chromosome aberrations in radio-sensitized histone H2AX heterozygous-deficient mouse ES cells and found that the rate of increase against the absorbed dose was 1.54-fold of proton irradiation at an accelerator. On the other hand, we estimated the quality factor of space radiation as 1.48 0.2. using formulas of International Commission of Radiation Protection (ICRP) 60. The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) observed from our experiments (1.54-fold of proton) was almost equal (1.04-fold) to the physical estimation (1.48 0.2). It should be important to clarify the relation between biological effect and physical estimates of space radiation. This comparative study paves a way to reveal the complex radiation environments to reduce the uncertainty for risk assessment of human stay in space.

Keywords

International space station; Space radiation; Mouse ES Cells; Stem cells; Chromosome aberration; Risk assessment

Disciplines

Integrative Medicine

File Format

PDF

File Size

533 KB

Language

English

Rights

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Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Repository Citation

Yoshida, K., Hada, M., Kizu, A., Kitada, K., Eguchi-Kasai, K., Kokubo, T., Teramura, T., Yano, S., Suzuki, H. H., Watanabe, H., Kondoh, G., Nagamatsu, A., Saganti, P., Cucinotta, F. A., Morita, T. (2022). Comparison of Biological Measurement and Physical Estimates of Space Radiation in the International Space Station. Heliyon, 8(8), 1-7.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10266