title: Development of serum iron as a biological dosimeter in mice.
abstract: Even though serum iron is a commonly used parameter in iron metabolism, it has not yet been applied for biological dosimetry purpose. A new biological dosimeter based on serum iron has been developed in this work. Serum iron levels in mice subjected to gamma rays from a (60)Co source were detected with the use of ferrous. The doses are from 0.2-7 Gy with a dose rate of 0.2 Gy/min. The results demonstrate that serum iron level increases with increasing dose. The detection limit based on serum iron has a lower limit of dose detection of about 0.5 Gy and the maximal increase of serum iron observed is maintained 4 h after γ irradiation. Therefore the best suggested time for blood collection is within 4 h after γ irradiation. Two dose-response relationships were observed with both according to degrees of the increase of serum iron levels and different intervals after γ irradiation. The first is a linear relationship of y = 0.98x + 6.76 (r = 0.98) obtained 10 min after γ irradiation; the second is the linear quadratic relationship of y = -0.07x(2) + 1.02x + 6.45 (r = 0.99) obtained 7 days after γ irradiation. The absorbed doses of mice estimated with the use of both these two dose-response relationships were close to the actual dose of 1 Gy. It is concluded that serum iron is a quick, simple and sensitive biomarker for early assessment of the absorbed dose of mice.
authors: Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China.
authors: Xiao-hong
authors: XH
authors: Zhang
authors: Zhi-chao
authors: ZC
authors: Lou
authors: Ai-lian
authors: AL
authors: Wang
authors: Xiao-dan
authors: XD
authors: Hu
authors: Hai-qian
authors: HQ
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005720:Gamma Rays / Q000009:adverse effects; D007501:Iron / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D007501:Iron