Effect of Low Doses of Accelerated Carbon Ions with Energy of 450 MeV/Nucleon on Adaptive Response and Genetic Instability in Two Generations of Mice

The patterns of radiation adaptive response (RAR) induction and transgenerational genomic instability in mice following exposure to carbon ions (¹²C) with a linear energy transfer (LET) of ~39 keV/μm and to X‑rays with a LET of ~2 keV/μm at a dose of 10 cGy were studied. Low doses of ¹²C, as well as X‑rays, induce RAR, the magnitude of which depends on the quality of the challenge radiation. In the first- and second- generation offspring of males irradiated ¹²C at a dose of 10 cGy, an increased spontaneous level of cytogenetic damage and the absence of RAR in the first generation were detected, in contrast to the offspring of males after irradiation with X‑rays.