Abstract
ALTHOUGH oxygen usually increases the sensitivity of biological systems to ionizing radiations, it was found that with the enzymes chymotrypsin1 and trypsin2, in dilute aqueous solutions, the presence of air as compared with vacuum diminished the sensitiveness by a factor of about 3. In these experiments the enzyme was dissolved in 10−3 N hydrochloric acid, in which it was believed to be most stable. We have now, in the case of trypsin, examined the effect of varying the pH of the solution in which it is dissolved and find that the effect of oxygen is markedly dependent on the pH. Some typical figures of the specific inactivation dose to 220-kV. X-rays are given in Table 1 (in rads/gm./ml.).
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References
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BUTLER, J., ROBINS, A. Effect of pH on the Sensitiveness of Trypsin to Ionizing Radiation. Nature 189, 852–853 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/189852a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/189852a0
