ISSN:
1089-7623
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
,
Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
Notes:
This article reports the continuation of a series of experiments investigating the effects of soft x-ray radiation damage on the contractile elements of mammalian striated muscle (myofibrils), using their ability to contract as a functional assay. The myofibrils were exposed to 385 eV x rays. This energy is within the "water window'' between the oxygen and carbon K edges, where the x-ray absorption coefficient of biological materials, such as protein, is about an order of magnitude greater than that for water. An exposure of 8×105 photons μm−1 was found to prevent contraction in the majority of myofibrils. Preliminary results indicate that it is possible to increase this exposure level by approximately 25% by adding the radioprotective dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO), an OH radical scavenger to the myofibril buffer during irradiation. This suggests that OH radicals are important in the inactivation of myofibrils through irradiation.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1143802
Permalink
