Neyman J, Puri P S
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1976 Oct;73(10):3360-3. doi: 10.1073/pnas.73.10.3360.
The chance mechanism of cell damage and of repair in the course of irradiation involves two details familiar to biologists that thus far seem to have been overlooked in mathematical treatment. One of these details is that, generally, the passage of a single "primary" radiation particle generates a "cluster" of secondaries which can produce "hits" that damage the living cell. With high linear energy transfer, each cluster contains very many secondary particles. With low linear energy transfer, the number of secondaries per cluster is generally small. The second overlooked detail of the chance mechanism is concerned with what may be called the time scales of radiation damage and of the subsequent repair. The generation of a cluster of secondary particles and the possible hits occur so rapidly that, for all practical purposes, they may be considered as occurring instantly. On the other hand, the subsequent changes in the damaged cells appear to require measurable amounts of time. The constructed stochastic model embodies these details, the clustering of secondary particles and the time scale difference. The results explain certain details of observed phenomena.
在辐射过程中，细胞损伤与修复的随机机制涉及生物学家所熟知的两个细节，而在数学处理中，这两个细节至今似乎都被忽视了。其中一个细节是，一般来说，单个“初级”辐射粒子的通过会产生一群“次级”粒子，这些次级粒子能够产生“击中”活细胞并造成损伤的情况。在高线性能量传递情况下，每个簇包含非常多的次级粒子。在低线性能量传递情况下，每个簇中的次级粒子数量通常较少。随机机制中另一个被忽视的细节涉及所谓的辐射损伤及后续修复的时间尺度。一群次级粒子的产生以及可能的“击中”发生得非常迅速，实际上可以认为它们是瞬间发生的。另一方面，受损细胞随后的变化似乎需要可测量的时间量。构建的随机模型体现了这些细节，即次级粒子的聚类以及时间尺度差异。这些结果解释了观察到的现象的某些细节。
