Dicentric Chromosomes - Illustrations

• Dicentric Chromosomes
• Conventional Lymphocyte Metaphase-Dicentric Assay
• Scoring of Dicentrics

Dicentric Chromosomes

• Radiation exposure causes DNA strand breaks leading to abnormal chromosome replication, including dicentric chromosome formation.
• Increases in radiation dose produce increasing numbers of abnormal (dicentric) chromosomes.
• The numbers of dicentric chromosomes correlate well with radiation dose (i.e., increases in dose produce increased numbers of dicentric chromosomes).
• Dicentric chromosome assay is the radiation biodosimetry "gold standard"
  • Time consuming and highly technique dependent