Using the U-120 cyclotron to study the effect of 30 MeV alpha particles on a liposome membrane

We studied the effect of α particles with energies 30.5 MeV, emitted from the 120-cm cyclotron at Skobeltsyn Research Institute of Nuclear Physics, MSU, on artificial membrane systems (liposomes) to simulate the effects of ionizing galactic cosmic rays on biological subjects. The start of low-level lipid peroxidation, accompanied by a change in the ordering of fatty acid residues in a part of the membrane remote from β-carotene molecules, was observed after irradiation by α-particles. The presented method proved to be quite effective and reliable.