Killing and Mutation of Chinese Hamster V79 Cells Exposed to Accelerated Oxygen and Neon Ions

Mutation induction by accelerated heavy ions to 6-thioguanine resistance (HPRT system) in Chinese hamster V79 cells was investigated using oxygen and neon ions with energies between 1.9 and 400 MeV/u, corresponding to LET values between 18 and 754 keV/{mu}m, respectively. Because of technical limitations most experiments could be performed only once. Inactivation and mutation induction cross sections, {sigma}{sub 1} and {sigma}{sub m}, were obtained from the slopes of the exponential survival and the linear mutation induction curves, respectively. Both parameters increased with LET up to about 200 keV/{mu}m, where the curves separated for the two types of ions. Calculated RBEs were higher for mutation induction than for killing for all LET values. 18 refs., 9 figs., 1 tab.