[Relative biological effectiveness of weak doses of neutrons for the production of dicentric chromosomes in human lymphocytes].

The induction of dicentric chromosomes in G0 human lymphocytes has been used to determine the Relative Biological Effectiveness (RBE) of low doses of d(16 MeV)-Be, d(33 MeV)-Be and d(50 MeV)-Be neutrons. Comparison of the dose-response curves obtained for neutrons with that found for gamma-rays indicates that RBE increases with decreasing neutron dose and with decreasing neutron energy, from d(50 Mev)-Be to d(16 MeV)-Be neutrons. The maximum RBE value at low doses has been evaluated by the linear components of the dose-response curves. It is equal to 14.0, 6.2 and 4.7 for the d(16 MeV)-Be, d(33 MeV)-Be and d(50 MeV)-Be neutrons respectively, when compared with the effects produced by the gamma-rays from 60-Co.