Analysis of chromosome aberrations after exposure to ionizing radiation in "in vitro" cultures of human lymphocytes by means of BrdU incorporation.

From the data presented, it can be pointed out that a linear relationship does not exist between irradiation doses and Sister chromatid exchanges. The number of chromosome aberrations instead increases regularly in correspondence with the increase of the irradiation doses while SCE remain at the same level. Our data demonstrate that, at each division, there is, at least in vitro, the loss of about 50% of the dicentrics and support the necessity in order to evaluate chromosome damage, of considering cultures harvested not later than 44 hours.