Dose-response relationship for the induction of structural chromosome aberrations in human spermatozoa after in vitro exposure to tritium beta-rays.

The effects of tritium (HTO) beta-rays on human sperm chromosomes were studied using our interspecific in vitro fertilization system between human spermatozoa and zona-free hamster oocytes. Semen samples were treated with media containing 1.53-24.3 mCi/ml HTO for about 80 min. 1290 spermatozoa from the controls and 1842 spermatozoa from the irradiated groups were karyotyped. The incidence of spermatozoa with structural chromosome aberrations increased linearly with increasing dosage. Breakage-type aberrations occurred far more frequently than exchange-type. Chromosome-type aberrations appeared far more frequently than chromatid-type. All of these types of aberrations showed linear dose-dependent increases. The RBE values of HTO beta-rays relative to X-rays were calculated for the above-mentioned 5 indices, respectively. Their RBE values ranged from 1.89 to 3.00 when the absorbed dose was estimated to be the minimum, whereas the values ranged between 1.04 and 1.65 when the absorbed dose was estimated to be the maximum.