Observation of DNA damage of human hepatoma cells irradiated with heavy ions using comet assay

Objective In this paper,DNA damages induced by irradiation with heavy ions were studied to pile up the base data for clinical therapy. Methods The human hepatoma cells were chosen as the test cell line and were irradiated with 80 MeV/u 20 Ne 10+ ,then single cell gel electrophroesis SCGE was used immediately to detect the DNA damages. Results The length of the tails appeared longer as the dose increased,which had the positive correlation with dose;and the number of cells with tail increased along with increasing doses,especially when doses were greater than 2 Gy,in which 100% cells were damage. Conclusion Heavy ions have strong effect to cause DNA damage.\;