Quantification of ultraviolet photon emission from interaction of charged particles in materials of interest in radiation biology research

In radiation biology experiments often cells are irradiated using charged particles with the intention that only a specified number of cells are hit by the primary ion track. However, in doing so several other materials such as the cell container and the growth media etc. are also irradiated, and UV radiation emitted from these materials can potentially interact with the cells. We have hypothesized that some “bystander effects” that are thought to be chemically mediated, may be, in fact, a physical effect, where UV is interacting with non-targeted cells.Based upon our hypothesis we quantified the emission of UV from Polypropylene, Mylar, Teflon, and Cellophane which are all commonly used materials in radiation biology experiments. Additionally we measured the NIST standard materials of Oyster tissue and Citrus leaves as these powdered materials are derived from living cells. Protons accelerated up to an energy of 2.2MeV, in a 3MV Van de Graff accelerator, were used for irradiation. Beam current was kept to 10nA, which corresponds to a proton fluence rate of 2.7×1010 protons mm−2s−1. All the materials were found to emit light at UV frequencies and intensities that were significant enough to conduct a further investigation for their biological consequences. Mylar and polypropylene are commonly used in radiation induced bystander effect studies and are considered to be non-fluorescent. However our study showed that this is not the case. Significant luminescence observed from the irradiated NIST standard reference materials for Oyster tissue and Citrus leaves verified that the luminescence emission is not restricted only to the polymeric materials that are used to contain cells. It can also occur from ion interactions within the cells as well.