中能重离子在生物组织中产生的核碎片

在利用重离子束治疗肿瘤和辐射生物学效应研究中，重离子束产生的核碎片会引起辐射场的改变。一方面主束的粒子数减少，另一方面产生了低Z的弹核碎片。这直接影响了主束的剂量-深度分布，这些低Z的碎片在主束Bragg峰外会产生附加的剂量，进一步影响生物学效应，而这种影响随离子射程的增加而增加。发展精确计算剂量的物理模型就必须有重离子束在等效生物组织中产生碎片的实验数据。有关碎片研究的实验，已广泛进行了许多年，近年来随着人类对加速器物理技术应用到放射治疗和人类对空间探索防护的需要，研究重离子束与生物相互作用以及弹核碎片的影响，已成为各国核应用科学家研究的热点问题，然而，有关中能重离子在等效生物组织中的实验数据并不多。基于此，本论文对这一问题，利用HIRFL产生的55MeV/u ~(40)Ar在 1.5mm有机玻璃(生物组织等效材料)中产生的碎片，对不同角度分布情况进行了研究，结果表明，重离子在生物组织等效材料中产生的核碎片，主要集中在向前的很小角度范围，碎片随角度的增加，原子序数接近主束的碎片产额急剧减少，而质子的角分布最广，在同一角度内的产额比其它碎片高：主束的展宽较小。将主束的剂量贡献与各角度的碎片剂量贡献总和比较，主束的剂量远大于各角度的碎片剂量贡献总和，这说明碎片的展宽效应就剂量方面考虑影响很小，但它对生物效应的影响还需要研究。本文还利用RIBLL80MeV/u ~(20)Ne离子产生的低强度62.8 MeV/u ~(12)C离，对不同厚度有机玻璃产生的核碎片进行了研究。结果表明，主束产额随厚度的增加呈现指数衰减；而碎片产额随厚度的增加而增加，且在某一厚度产额逐渐饱和。重离子在生物体内产生的核碎片不利于重离子治疗，为此本文在理论上全面考虑了碎片对剂量的贡献后，提出了剂量-深度曲线计算方法，其计算结果与实验数据符合相当好。但对其广泛应用还需更多的实验数据验证。通过对中能重离子在生物等效组织中碎片的研究，提出了在放射治疗中应尽量采用轻的离子束以减少碎片对治疗的影响；而在象育种那样的诱变工作中，考虑到提高诱变效率，应尽量采用重的离子束。论文还对剂量测量中复合效应的影响进行了研究，并提出了修正F的计算公式。对剂量监测系统性能的研究表明，在治疗中，当达到治疗剂量后，治疗系统切断束流的反应速度对治疗效果有不可忽视的影响，为此在应用重离子束治疗的控制中必须引起注意。还研究了实验中产生的中子角分布及其防护。产尘的中子剂量与重离子束剂量的比较表明，中子剂量的贡献在应用重离子束治疗中是可忽略的。总之，论文通过碎片效应的实验和理论研究积累了一些有价值的资料，它们对重离子辐射育种、重离子放射治疗和放射治疗中中子防护是有用的。

Characterization and Comparison of the Tissue-Related Modules in Human and Mouse

Background: Due to the advances of high throughput technology and data-collection approaches, we are now in an unprecedented position to understand the evolution of organisms. Great efforts have characterized many individual genes responsible for the interspecies divergence, yet little is known about the genome-wide divergence at a higher level. Modules, serving as the building blocks and operational units of biological systems, provide more information than individual genes. Hence, the comparative analysis between species at the module level would shed more light on the mechanisms underlying the evolution of organisms than the traditional comparative genomics approaches. Results: We systematically identified the tissue-related modules using the iterative signature algorithm (ISA), and we detected 52 and 65 modules in the human and mouse genomes, respectively. The gene expression patterns indicate that all of these predicted modules have a high possibility of serving as real biological modules. In addition, we defined a novel quantity, "total constraint intensity,'' a proxy of multiple constraints (of co-regulated genes and tissues where the co-regulation occurs) on the evolution of genes in module context. We demonstrate that the evolutionary rate of a gene is negatively correlated with its total constraint intensity. Furthermore, there are modules coding the same essential biological processes, while their gene contents have diverged extensively between human and mouse. Conclusions: Our results suggest that unlike the composition of module, which exhibits a great difference between human and mouse, the functional organization of the corresponding modules may evolve in a more conservative manner. Most importantly, our findings imply that similar biological processes can be carried out by different sets of genes from human and mouse, therefore, the functional data of individual genes from mouse may not apply to human in certain occasions.

The experimental measurement of the relative biological effectiveness of carbon ions with different qualities

The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of carbon ions with linear energy transfer (LET) of 172 keV/mu m and 13.7 keV/mu m were determined in this study. The clonogenic survival and premature terminal differentiation were measured on normal human. broblasts AG01522C and NHDF after exposure of the cells to 250 kV X-rays and carbon ions with different qualities. RBE was determined for these two biological end points. The results showed that the measured RBE10 with a survival fraction of 10% was 3.2 for LET 172 keV/mu m, and 1.33 for LET 13.7 keV/mu m carbon ions. RBE for a doubling of post-mitotic. broblasts (PMF) in the population was 2.8 for LET 172 keV/mu m, and 1 for LET 13.7 keV/mu m carbon ions. For the carbon ion therapy, a high RBE value on the Bragg peak results in a high biological dose on the tumour. The tumour cells can be killed effectively. At the same time, the dose on healthy tissue would be reduced accordingly. This will lighten the late effect such as fibrosis on normal tissue.

Surface modification of bioactive glass nanoparticles and the mechanical and biological properties of poly(L-lactide) composites

Novel bioactive glass (13G) nanoparticles/poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) composites were prepared as promising bone-repairing materials. The BG nanoparticles (Si:P:Ca = 29:13:58 weight ratio) of about 40 run diameter were prepared via the sol-gel method. In order to improve the phase compatibility between the polymer and the inorganic phase, PLLA (M-n = 9700 Da) was linked to the surface of the BG particles by diisocyanate. The grafting ratio of PLLA was in the vicinity of 20 wt.%. The grafting modification could improve the tensile strength, tensile modulus and impact energy of the composites by increasing the phase compatibility.

Purification of human tissue prokallikrein excreted from insect cells by liquid chromatography

Tissue kallikrein, generally existing in living bodies as prokallikrein, is a serine proteinase that has proven of great significance to treat hypertension, cardiopathy and nephropathy. Although the extraction of tissue kallikrein from human urine is the most commonly used method to obtain such a protein, not only the yield is very little, but also the procedure is rather complex. Furthermore, the biological safety is uncertain. Therefore, the preparation of such a protein by genetic engineering method, including gene expression, cell culture, separation and purification, is very important. In this paper, a new method to obtain purified tissue prokallikrein excreted from insect cells by liquid chromatography has been proposed. In contrast to the previously published papers, the purification procedure is simplified to only three steps with the final yield of 57% and the purity of 95%, which is not only convenient, but also low-cost and suitable for the large-scale preparation of such a protein. The purified protein is further validated as prokallikrein by high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and amino acid sequencing. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.