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Stochastic rat lung dosimetry for inhaled radon progeny: a surrogate for the human lung for lung cancer risk assessment

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Abstract

Laboratory rats are frequently used in inhalation studies as a surrogate for human exposures. The objective of the present study was therefore to develop a stochastic dosimetry model for inhaled radon progeny in the rat lung, to predict bronchial dose distributions and to compare them with corresponding dose distributions in the human lung. The most significant difference between human and rat lungs is the branching structure of the bronchial tree, which is relatively symmetric in the human lung, but monopodial in the rat lung. Radon progeny aerosol characteristics used in the present study encompass conditions typical for PNNL and COGEMA rat inhalation studies, as well as uranium miners and human indoor exposure conditions. It is shown here that depending on exposure conditions and modeling assumptions, average bronchial doses in the rat lung ranged from 5.4 to 7.3 mGy WLM−1. If plotted as a function of airway generation, bronchial dose distributions exhibit a significant maximum in large bronchial airways. If, however, plotted as a function of airway diameter, then bronchial doses are much more uniformly distributed throughout the bronchial tree. Comparisons between human and rat exposures indicate that rat bronchial doses are slightly higher than human bronchial doses by about a factor of 1.3, while lung doses, averaged over the bronchial (BB), bronchiolar (bb) and alveolar-interstitial (AI) regions, are higher by about a factor of about 1.6. This supports the current view that the rat lung is indeed an appropriate surrogate for the human lung in case of radon-induced lung cancers. Furthermore, airway diameter seems to be a more appropriate morphometric parameter than airway generations to relate bronchial doses to bronchial carcinomas.

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Notes

  1. The WLM is a historical unit of potential alpha energy exposure: 1 WLM = 3.534 mJ h m−3.

  2. The aerodynamic shape factor is a dimensionless constant used to relate the physical forces acting upon an irregularly shaped particle moving in air relative to a spherical particle with equivalent volume diameter.

  3. The hygroscopic growth factor is defined as the ratio of the saturation diameter of a hygroscopic particle to its initial dry diameter.

  4. The potential alpha energy concentration is defined as the concentration of any mixture of short-lived radon progeny in air in terms of alpha energy released during complete decay through 210Pb.

  5. The equilibrium factor is the ratio of the equilibrium-equivalent activity concentration of the radon progeny and the radon activity concentration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Physics and Biophysics, Department of Materials Research and Physics, University of Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstrasse 34, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    R. Winkler-Heil, M. Hussain & W. Hofmann

  2. Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan

    M. Hussain

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  1. R. Winkler-Heil
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  2. M. Hussain
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  3. W. Hofmann
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Correspondence to R. Winkler-Heil.

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Winkler-Heil, R., Hussain, M. & Hofmann, W. Stochastic rat lung dosimetry for inhaled radon progeny: a surrogate for the human lung for lung cancer risk assessment. Radiat Environ Biophys 54, 225–241 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00411-015-0591-8

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